Exposure of fetuses to air pollution while in the womb affects the babies’ cellular processes after birth and leads to a decrease in proteins that protect against inflammation, stress and aging.

According to research presented by Olga Gorlanova, a doctor and researcher at the University Children’s Hospital of the University of Basel at the European Pulmonology Society’s international conference in Milan, pregnant women’s exposure to higher levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a pollutant that comes mainly from emissions of the vehicles, is associated with increased levels of the protein Beclin-1, which plays a role in the initiation of autophagy, i.e. cell renewal. It was also linked to reduced levels of the protein SIRT1, which plays a protective role in resistance to stress, inflammation and aging, and the protein IL-8, which is active in certain inflammatory cells. For the research, the scientific team examined 11 proteins found in the umbilical cord blood of 449 healthy newborn babies.

In previous research, Ms. Gorlanova and her colleagues have identified that exposure to air pollution during pregnancy can affect the lung function and immune system of newborns.

Mariel Pignenburg, associate professor of pediatric pulmonology at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands and head of the European Pulmonology Society for Pediatrics, who was not involved in the research, comments that “we already have enough evidence from this and other studies to send a message loud and clear to governments and policy makers that air pollution harms people’s health and the effects are seen before birth. We should all redouble our efforts to reduce air pollution as quickly and further as possible. This will not only improve the health of populations and reduce the costs associated with treating diseases caused by air pollution, but will also help the environment at a time when the climate crisis is becoming more apparent with each passing day.” .