研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，空氣污染會在懷孕期間抵達胎盤

研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，空氣污染會在懷孕期間抵達胎盤

A new study suggests when a pregnant woman breathes in air pollution, it can travel beyond her lungs to the placenta that guards her fetus.

一項新的研究表明，當孕婦吸入空氣污染時，空氣污染會從肺部傳播到保護胎兒的胎盤。

Pollution composed of tiny particles from car exhaust, factory smokestacks and other sources is dangerous to everyone’s health, and during pregnancy it’s been linked to premature births and low birth weight.

汽車尾氣、工廠煙囪和其他來源的微小顆粒物構(gòu)成的污染，對每個人的健康都是危險的，在懷孕期間，它與早產(chǎn)和出生體重過低有關(guān)。

But scientists don’t understand why, something that could affect care for women in highly polluted areas. One theory is that the particles lodge in mom’s lungs and trigger potentially harmful inflammation.

但科學家們不明白為什么，這可能會影響到對高污染地區(qū)婦女的護理。有一種理論認為，這些微粒會滯留在媽媽的肺部，引發(fā)潛在的有害炎癥。

Tuesday, Belgian researchers reported another possibility, that any risk might be more direct.

周二，比利時研究人員報告了另一種可能性，即任何風險都可能更加直接。

A novel scanning technique spotted a type of particle pollution — sootlike black carbon — on placentas donated by 28 new mothers, they reported in Nature Communications.

據(jù)《自然通訊》報道，一項新的掃描技術(shù)在28位新媽媽捐獻的胎盤上發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種顆粒污染——類似黑炭的煤煙。

The placenta nourishes a developing fetus and tries to block damaging substances in the mother’s bloodstream. The Hasselt University team found the particles accumulated on the side of the placenta closest to the fetus, near where the umbilical cord emerges.

胎盤滋養(yǎng)發(fā)育中的胎兒，并試圖阻止母親血液中的有害物質(zhì)。哈塞爾特大學的研究小組發(fā)現(xiàn)，這些微粒積聚在胎盤最靠近胎兒的一側(cè)，也就是臍帶出現(xiàn)的地方。

That’s not proof the soot actually crossed the placenta to reach the fetus — or that it’s responsible for any ill effects, cautioned Dr. Yoel Sadovsky of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, a leading placenta expert who wasn’t involved with the new research.

匹茲堡大學醫(yī)學中心的約爾·薩多夫斯基博士警告說，這并不能證明煤煙是通過胎盤到達胎兒的，也不能證明煤煙會造成任何不良影響，他是一位沒有參與這項新研究的著名胎盤專家。

Still, “just finding it at the placenta is important,” Sadovsky said. “The next question would be how much of these black carbon particles need to be there to cause damage.”

盡管如此，“僅僅在胎盤中發(fā)現(xiàn)它就已經(jīng)很重要了，”薩多夫斯基說。“下一個問題會研究，需要多少黑碳粒子才能造成破壞。”

Scientists already had some clues from animal studies that particles could reach the placenta, but Tuesday’s study is a first with human placentas.

科學家們已經(jīng)從動物研究中得到了一些線索，認為微?？梢缘竭_胎盤，但周二的研究是首次對人類胎盤進行研究。

The Belgian researchers developed a way to scan placenta samples using ultra-short pulses from a laser that made the black carbon particles flash a bright white light, so they could be measured.

比利時的研究人員開發(fā)了一種利用激光的超短脈沖掃描胎盤樣本的方法，這種激光使黑碳粒子閃爍一道明亮的白光，這樣就可以對它們進行測量。

The researchers included placentas from 10 mothers who lived in areas with high pollution and 10 others from low areas. The higher the exposure to pollution, the more particles the researchers counted in the placentas.

研究人員收集了10位生活在高污染地區(qū)的母親和10位生活在低污染地區(qū)的母親的胎盤。受污染的程度越高，胎盤中的顆粒就越多。