Toxic metallic air pollution nanoparticles are getting inside the crucial, energy-producing structures within the hearts of people living in polluted cities, causing cardiac stress – a new study confirms.
Toxic metallic air pollution nanoparticles are getting inside the crucial, energy-producing structures within the hearts of people living in polluted cities, causing cardiac stress – a new study confirms.
Using state-of-the-art electron microscopy, scientists are now able to show for the first time that tiny metal nanoparticles are getting inside the mitochondria of heart tissue – damaging these crucial ‘powerhouses’ that provide energy for the heart to pump.
The research team, led by Professors Barbara Maher of Lancaster University and Lilian Calderón-Garcidueñas of The University of Montana and the Universidad del Valle de Mexico, found the metallic nanoparticles, which included iron-rich nanoparticles and other pollution-derived metals such as titanium, inside the damaged heart cells of a 26-year-old and even a three-year-old toddler.
The hearts had belonged to people who had died in accidents and who had lived in highly-polluted Mexico City.
Read more at Lancaster University
Image by Valdas Miskinis from Pixabay
