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Isabelle Romieu,¹ Raquel Garcia-Esteban,² Jordi Sunyer,² Camilo Rios,³ Mireya Alcaraz-Zubeldia,³ Silvia Ruiz Velasco,⁴ and Fernando Holguin⁵

¹Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México; ²Instituto Municipal de Investigaciones Médicas and Centre de Recerca en Epidemiologia Ambiental, Barcelona, Spain; ³Instituto Nacional de Neurología, México DF, México; ⁴Instituto de Investigaciones en Matemáticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México DF, México; ⁵Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Abstract
Background: The mechanisms of particulate matter (PM) -induced health effects are believed to involve inflammation and oxidative stress. Increased intake of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) appears to have anti-inflammatory effects.

Objective: As part of a trial to evaluate whether n-3 PUFA supplementation could protect against the cardiac alterations linked to PM exposure, we measured biomarkers of response to oxidative stimuli [copper/zinc (Cu/Zn) superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, lipoperoxidation (LPO) products, and reduced glutathione (GSH) ] and evaluated the impact of supplementation on plasma levels.

Methods: We recruited residents from a nursing home in Mexico City chronically exposed to PM ≤ 2.5 µm in aerodynamic diameter (PM_2.5) and followed them from 26 September 2001 to 10 April 2002. We randomly assigned subjects in a double-blind fashion to receive either fish oil (n-3 PUFA) or soy oil. We measured PM_2.5 levels indoors at the nursing home, and measured Cu/Zn SOD activity, LPO products, and GSH at different times during presupplementation and supplementation phases.

Results: Supplementation with either fish or soy oil was related to an increase of Cu/Zn SOD activity and an increase in GSH plasma levels, whereas exposure to indoor PM_2.5 levels was related to a decrease in Cu/Zn SOD activity and GSH plasma levels.

Conclusion: Supplementation with n-3 PUFA appeared to modulate the adverse effects of PM_2.5 on these biomarkers, particularly in the fish oil group. Supplementation with n-3 PUFA could modulate oxidative response to PM_2.5 exposure.

Key words: biological markers, omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) , oxidative stress, PM_2.5. Environ Health Perspect 116:1237–1242 (2008) . doi:10.1289/ehp.10578 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 16 May 2008]

Address correspondence to I. Romieu, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Av. Universidad #655, Col. Santa Maria Ahuacatitlán, CP 62508, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México. Telephone: 52-777-101-29-35. Fax: 52-777-311-11-48. E-mail: iromieu@correo.insp.mx

Supplemental Material is available online at http://www.ehponline.org/members/2008/10578/suppl.pdf

We thank R. Nadif (INSERM U780, Villejuif, France) and P. Sly (University of Western Australia, Perth) , for their useful comments.

This work was supported by research grant 34483-M from the Mexican Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología and by the Mexican Ministry of Health. I.R. was supported in part by the U.S. National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, GA, USA) ; the GA²LEN project (European Union contract FOODCT-2004-506378) ; and the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (SAB2004-0192) .

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.

Received 20 June 2007 ; accepted 13 May 2008.

Correction

In Table 2 of the manuscript originally published online, the intercept for LPO was 34.54 ; it has been corrected here.