Stressful life events are suggested to contribute to the development of various pathologies, such as cardiovascular disorders, whose etiopathogenesis is highly associated with elevated levels of serum amyloid A (SAA) proteins.
Blood levels of these two acute phase proteins are closely associated with risk of cardiovascular disease in epidemiological studies and SAA has been causally related to the formation of plaques in the aorta in animal studies.In a recent paper in Particle and Fibre Toxicology, Christian Monsé et al. provide evidence that inhalation of ZnO nanoparticles induces dose-dependent acute phase response in humans at dose levels well below the current mass-based occupational exposure limits in a number of countries including Germany, The Netherlands, UK, Sweden, Denmark and the US.Given the evidence suggesting a causal relationship between increased levels of serum amyloid A and atherosclerosis, the current results call for a re-evaluation of occupational exposure limits for a number of particle exposures including ZnO taking induction of acute phase response into account.
As elevations of CRP and SAA protein have both been linked to a higher risk for cardiovascular disease, these findings might particularly be important for long-term welders.
Despite high levels of sequence homology among these variants, SAA1 polymorphisms have been reported as risk factors of cardiovascular diseases and several types of cancer.