Impact of ambient temperature exposure on inflammation-related proteins: a repeated measurement study in the BAMSE cohort

BackgroundShort-term exposure to ambient temperature is linked to various health outcomes, raising public health concern in the context of climate change. We aimed to investigate longitudinal associations of temperature exposure with inflammation-related proteins among Swedish young adults. MethodsWe conducted three repeated measurements (2020-2022) by collecting self-sampled volumetric dry blood spots (DBS) from 807 participants from the Swedish BAMSE cohort (mean age 25.9 years). We estimated individual-address level daily temperature using a high-resolution spatiotemporal model. Inflammation-related proteins were measured using the Olinks Explore Inflammation panel. Temperature-related proteins were identified using mixed-effect model adjusting for potential covariates, with potential effect modification by sex, smoking, asthma and air pollution explored. We further linked the temperature-related proteins to lung function, blood pressure and HbA1c. In addition, we built an inflammation-proteomic aging clock using a machine-learning approach and estimated the association between temperature exposure and proteomic age acceleration. Findingswe found that 58 (16%) of the 365 studied inflammation-related proteins were significantly associated with short-term exposure to ambient temperatures (P<0.05 after correcting for multiple comparison). The impact of temperature exposure was modified by sex, smoking, asthma, and concurrent exposure to air pollution. A total of five, three and three temperature-related proteins were found to be associated with lung function, blood pressure, and HbA1c, respectively and validated in the UK Biobank. Peak temperature exposure (both cold and heat) was associated with significantly increased proteomic age acceleration. InterpretationOur findings suggest that ambient temperature exposure may cause adverse health effects through perturbating inflammation-related proteins. SynopsisThis study reports significant effects of ambient temperature exposure on inflammation-related proteins, highlighting potential health impacts from ambient temperature exposure. Graphical abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=181 SRC="FIGDIR/small/25331135v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (57K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@16e3eb3org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@d67d61org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1c190a2org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@feba21_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG