Micro management: understanding how diesel exhaust particles alter cellular processes.

摘要

Scientists have known for decades that people living in cities are more susceptible to certain respiratory diseases than are their countryside counterparts. But they haven't been able to explain why one urbanite develops severe asthma while his neighbor breathing the same city air has healthy lungs. Now researchers are beginning to solve that riddle as they delve into epigenetics, the emerging science of how environmental factors alter gene expression [EHP 117:1745-1751; Jardim et al.].