ArticleEnvironmental health : a global access science source2013
Modification by hemochromatosis gene polymorphisms of the association between traffic-related air pollution and cognition in older men: a cohort study.
Article in Environmental health : a global access science source, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Air Pollution and Cognitive Impairment across the Life Course in Humans: A Systematic Review with Specific Focus on Income Level of Study Area.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- A critical review of potential modifiers of air pollutant associations with dementia and related outcomes.Neurotoxicology · 2026Review
- Decoding mechanisms and protein markers in lung-brain axis.Respiratory research · 2025Review
- Effects of particulate air pollution exposure on lung-brain axis and related miRNAs modulation in mouse models.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2025Review
- Contributions of HFE polymorphisms to brain and blood iron load, and their links to cognitive and motor function in healthy adults.Neuropsychopharmacology reports · 2021Article
- Age and mitochondrial DNA copy number influence the association between outdoor temperature and cognitive function: Insights from the VA Normative Aging Study.Environmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2020Article
- Atypical microglial response to biodiesel exhaust in healthy and hypertensive rats.Neurotoxicology · 2017Article
- APOE ε4 allele modifies the association of lead exposure with age-related cognitive decline in older individuals.Environmental research · 2016Article
- Cognitive function and short-term exposure to residential air temperature: A repeated measures study based on spatiotemporal estimates of temperature.Environmental research · 2016Article
- Microglial priming through the lung-brain axis: the role of air pollution-induced circulating factors.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2016Article
- Urban air pollutants reduce synaptic function of CA1 neurons via an NMDA/NȮ pathway in vitro.Journal of neurochemistry · 2013Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPrevious studies found effect modification of associations between traffic-related air pollution and cardiovascular outcomes by polymorphisms in the hemochromatosis gene (HFE). As traffic-related air pollution may impact cognition through effects on cardiovascular health or through mechanisms which may also influence cardiovascular outcomes, we hypothesized that HFE polymorphisms would also modify a previously observed association between traffic-related air pollution exposure and cognition in older men.
methodsWe considered data from 628 participants of the VA Normative Aging Study. We estimated long term exposure to black carbon (BC), a marker of traffic related air pollution, using a spatio-temporal land use regression model. We assessed cognition using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), a test of global function, and performance on a battery of other tests, covering a wide range of domains. We investigated whether variants of HFE C282Y and H63D modified the association between BC and having a low MMSE score using logistic models with generalized estimating equations and multiplicative interaction terms. Similarly, we assessed whether HFE variants modified the association between BC and performance on the cognitive battery using linear mixed models with multiplicative interaction terms.
resultsOur results suggest modification of the BC-cognition association by HFE C282Y, although the test of interaction did not achieve statistical significance. In multivariable-adjusted models, participants who lacked a HFE C282Y variant (CC) exhibited an adverse association between BC and total cognition z-score (beta for a doubling in BC concentration: -0.061, 95% CI: -0.115, -0.007), while we did not observe an association in participants with at least one variant genotype (CY or YY) (beta for a doubling in BC concentration: 0.073, 95% CI: -0.081, 0.228; p-value for interaction: 0.11). The pattern of association was similar for analyses considering performance on the Mini-Mental State Examination. There was little evidence to support effect modification of the BC-cognition association by the HFE H63D genotype.
conclusionsOur data suggest that older adults who lack an HFE C282Y variant may be more susceptible to an adverse effect of traffic-related air pollution exposure on cognition. This finding and the proposed biological mechanism require confirmation.
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