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Traffic, asthma and genetics: combining international birth cohort data to examine genetics as a mediator of traffic-related air pollution’s impact on childhood asthma

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Abstract

Associations between traffic-related air pollution and incident childhood asthma can be strengthened by analysis of gene-environment interactions, but studies have typically been limited by lack of study power. We combined data from six birth cohorts on: asthma, eczema and allergic rhinitis to 7/8 years, and candidate genes. Individual-level assessment of traffic-related air pollution exposure was estimated using land use regression or dispersion modeling. A total of 11,760 children were included in the Traffic, Asthma and Genetics (TAG) Study; 6.3 % reported physician-diagnosed asthma at school-age, 16.0 % had asthma at anytime during childhood, 14.1 % had allergic rhinitis at school-age, 10.0 % had eczema at school-age and 33.1 % were sensitized to any allergen. For GSTP1 rs1138272, the prevalence of heterozygosity was 16 % (range amongst individual cohorts, 11–17 %) and homozygosity for the minor allele was 1 % (0–2 %). For GSTP1 rs1695, the prevalence of heterozygosity was 45 % (40–48 %) and homozygosity for the minor allele, 12 % (10–12 %). For TNF rs1800629, the prevalence of heterozygosity was 29 % (25–32 %) and homozygosity for the minor allele, 3 % (1–3 %). TAG comprises a rich database, the largest of its kind, for investigating the effect of genotype on the association between air pollution and childhood allergic disease.

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Abbreviations

APMoSPHERE:

Air pollution modelling for support to policy on health and environmental risk in Europe

BAMSE:

Children, allergy, Milieu, Stockholm, epidemiological survey

CAPPS:

Canadian asthma primary prevention study

GINIplus:

German infant study on the influence of nutritional intervention plus environmental and genetic influences on allergy development

GSTP1:

Glutathione S-transferase pi 1

LISAplus:

Lifestyle related factors, immune system and the development of allergies in East and West Germany plus the influence of traffic emissions and genetics study

LUR:

Land-use regression

NO2 :

Nitrogen dioxide

O3 :

Ozone

PIAMA:

Prevention and Incidence of asthma and mite allergy

PM2.5 :

Particulate matter of diameter less than 2.5 µm

SAGE:

Study of asthma, genes, and environment

TAG:

Traffic, asthma and genetics study

TNF:

Tumour necrosis factor

TLR:

Toll-like receptor

TRAP:

Traffic-related air pollution

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Acknowledgments

Initial discussions regarding the TAG collaboration took place at the AllerGen NCE workshop “Genes and the Environment: The Genesis of Asthma and Allergy” in 2009. We thank Dr. Kees de Hoogh for providing the ozone exposure estimates from the APMoSPHERE project. We would like to thank all children and parents for their cooperation. We would also like to thank all technical and administrative support staff and the medical and fieldwork teams. Funding for this project (the TAG study) was provided by the AllerGen NCE (The Allergy, Genes and Environment Network). The BAMSE study was supported by the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Research Council FORMAS, the Swedish Heart–Lung Foundation, Stiftelsen Frimurare Barnhuset i Stockholm, the Stockholm County Council, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, and the Swedish Society for Medical Research. The PIAMA study is supported by The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development, The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, The Netherlands Asthma Fund, The Netherlands Ministry of Spatial Planning, Housing, and the Environment, and The Netherlands Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport. The GINIplus study was mainly supported for the first 3 years of the Federal Ministry for Education, Science, Research and Technology (interventional arm) and Helmholtz Zentrum Munich (former GSF) (observational arm). The 6 year follow-up examination of the GINIplus study was covered from the respective budgets of the 5 study centres (Helmholtz Zentrum Munich (former GSF), Marien-Hospital Wesel, LMU Munich, TU Munich and from 6 years onwards also from IUF—Leibniz Research-Institute for Environmental Medicine, Düsseldorf) and a grant from the Federal Ministry for Environment (IUF Düsseldorf, FKZ 20462296). The LISAplus study was mainly supported by grants from the Federal Ministry for Education, Science, Research and Technology and in addition from Helmholtz Zentrum Munich (former GSF), Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Leipzig, Marien-Hospital Wesel, Pediatric Practice, Bad Honnef for the first 2 years. The 6 year follow-up examination of the LISAplus study was covered from the respective budgets of the involved partners (Helmholtz Zentrum Munich (former GSF), Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Leipzig, Marien-Hospital Wesel, Pediatric Practice, Bad Honnef, IUF—Leibniz-Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Düsseldorf) and in addition by a grant from the Federal Ministry for Environment (IUF Düsseldorf, FKZ 20462296). The CAPPS study was supported by the Canadian Institute of Health Research, the British Columbia Lung Association, and the Manitoba Medical Service Foundation. The SAGE study was supported by the Canadian Institute of Health Research. Elaine Fuertes was supported by the AllerGen NCE (Canadian Allergy and Immune Diseases Advanced Training Initiative) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, 2206 East Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T1Z3, Canada

    Elaina A. MacIntyre, Elaine Fuertes & Michael Brauer

  2. Institute of Epidemiology I, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Centre for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany

    Elaina A. MacIntyre, Elaine Fuertes, Carla M. T. Tiesler & Joachim Heinrich

  3. Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Christopher Carlsten, Moira Chan-Yeung & Michael Brauer

  4. Respiratory Medicine Division, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Meaghan MacNutt

  5. Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Eric Melén & Goran Pershagen

  6. Sachs’ Children’s Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden

    Eric Melén

  7. Division of Metabolic Diseases and Nutritional Medicine, Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Carla M. T. Tiesler

  8. Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Ulrike Gehring & Bert Brunekreef

  9. Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Ursula Krämer & Claudia Klümper

  10. University Medical Center Groningen, GRIAC Research Institute, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Marjan Kerkhof

  11. Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Women and Children’s Research Institute, School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada

    Anita L. Kozyrskyj

  12. Department of Pediatrics, Marien-Hospital Wesel, Wesel, Germany

    Dietrich Berdel

  13. Department of Pediatrics, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Carl Peter Bauer

  14. Faculty of Medicine, Environmental Medicine and Hygiene, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Olf Herbarth

  15. Department for Environmental Immunology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Leipzig, Germany

    Mario Bauer

  16. Medical Practice for Pediatrics, Bad Honnef, Germany

    Beate Schaaf

  17. Division of Paediatric Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Sibylle Koletzko

  18. Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Bert Brunekreef

Authors
  1. Elaina A. MacIntyre
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  2. Christopher Carlsten
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  3. Meaghan MacNutt
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  4. Elaine Fuertes
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  5. Eric Melén
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  6. Carla M. T. Tiesler
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  7. Ulrike Gehring
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  8. Ursula Krämer
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  10. Marjan Kerkhof
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  11. Moira Chan-Yeung
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  12. Anita L. Kozyrskyj
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  13. Dietrich Berdel
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  14. Carl Peter Bauer
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  15. Olf Herbarth
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  16. Mario Bauer
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  17. Beate Schaaf
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  18. Sibylle Koletzko
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  19. Goran Pershagen
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  20. Bert Brunekreef
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  21. Joachim Heinrich
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  22. Michael Brauer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Brauer.

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This study was conducted for the TAG Study Group

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MacIntyre, E.A., Carlsten, C., MacNutt, M. et al. Traffic, asthma and genetics: combining international birth cohort data to examine genetics as a mediator of traffic-related air pollution’s impact on childhood asthma. Eur J Epidemiol 28, 597–606 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-013-9828-5

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