Across-shift changes in upper airways after exposure to bacterial cell wall components

• Main Authors: Marcin Cyprowski, Agata Stobnicka-Kupiec, Rafał L. Górny, Małgorzata Gołofit-Szymczak, Aneta Ptak-Chmielewska, Anna Ławniczek-Wałczyk
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Rural Health 2019-06-01
• Series: Annals of Agricultural and Environmental Medicine
• Subjects: endotoxins; occupational exposure; IL-8; peptidoglycans; airway inflammation; across-shift changes
• Online Access: http://www.journalssystem.com/aaem/Across-shift-changes-in-upper-airways-after-exposure-to-bacterial-cell-wall-components,106112,0,2.html

Introduction To assess the across-shift changes of cytokine concentrations in nasal lavage (NAL) samples were collected from workers exposed to bacterial cell wall components present in organic dust in three different occupational environments. Material and methods The study was conducted in 38 employees including 10 workers from a municipal waste sorting plant (WSP), 20 from a sewage treatment plant (STP) and 8 from an office building (OB), who were established as a reference group, not exposed to organic dust. Interleukins 1β (IL-1β), 6 (IL-6), 8 (IL-8) and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) were examined in NAL before and after work shift on Wednesdays. Bioaerosol exposure was determined by personal measurements and analysed for organic dust, endotoxins (END) and peptidoglycans (PGN). Results The analysis included the results for IL-8 only, because for the other cytokines their concentrations in 80% of cases were below the detection level. The most polluted were the workplaces in WSP with average concentrations of organic dust – 3.47 mg/m 3 , END – 96.31 ng/m 3 and PGN – 571.88 ng/m 3 . The results of IL-8 showed a significant difference between the studied groups after the work shift (p=0.007). Among WSP workers concentrations of IL-8 increased also significantly (p=0.015) during the work shift. Multivariate analysis showed that organic dust and END were the factors that in the most distinct way (p<0.001) influenced changes of IL-8 levels in NAL. Conclusions Each alteration in the composition of bioaerosols will probably determine the changes in the mechanisms responsible for both formation and modulation of inflammatory reactions in exposed workers.