Investigation of Gene Expression Pattern of 5HTR2a and MAO-A in PBMCs of Individuals Who Had Been Exposed to Air Pollution in Highly Polluted Area

Exposure to air pollutants can lead to lung inflammatory responses such as allergic asthma. Serotonin elevation is shown to be present in peripheral blood of symptomatic asthmatic patients. In this study, two genes, 5HTR2a and MAO-A playing important roles in serotonin function, were analyzed in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of individuals who had been exposed to air pollution and allergic asthmatic patients as well. Thus, cDNA was synthesized from PBMCs’ mRNA of the subjects and then gene expression was measured by real-time PCR. 5HTR2A gene expression in PBMCs of both exposed individuals and allergic asthmatic patients was significantly increased compared with control group, whereas MAO-A gene expression showed no significant changes in neither groups. These results indicate that there may be association between increased 5HTR2a gene expression and exposure to air pollution as well as asthma incidence. Some relevant patents are also outlined in this article.