Air Pollution May be Linked to Autism and Schizophrenia: Early Life Exposure Impacts the Brain

How dangerous is air pollution? Early life exposure to it could be drastically affecting your health. Scientists have found that exposure to these contaminants early in life produces harmful changes in the brains of mice, including an enlargement of part of the brain that is seen in humans who have autism and schizophrenia.

In order to see how air pollution might impact someone's health, the researchers turned to mice. They exposed the rodents to levels of air pollution typically found in mid-sized U.S. cities during rush hour. These exposures happened during the first two weeks after the mice were born, which is a critical time in the brain's development. The rodents were exposed to the air for four hours each day for two four-day periods.

So what did they find? It turns out that there was inflammation in all of the mice's brains. In particular, the lateral ventricles, which are chambers on each side of the brain that contain cerebrospinal fluid, were enlarged to two-to-three times their normal size. In addition, the white matter that normally surrounds the ventricles hadn't fully development. The inflammation apparently damaged those brain cells and the ventricles simply expanded to fill the space.

"Our findings add to the growing body of evidence that air pollution may play a role in autism, as well as in other neurodevelopment disorders," said Deborah Cory-Slectha, one of the researchers, in a news release.

That's not all the researchers found, either. It turns out that the damage to the brain was permanent. In addition, the scientists found elevated levels of glutamate, a neurotransmitter, in the mice. These elevated levels are also seen in humans with autism and schizophrenia.

"I think these findings are going to raise new questions about whether the current regulatory standards for air quality are sufficient to protect our children," said Cory-Slectha in a news release.

The findings are published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.