Diesel Particles and Cholesterol Can increase Heart Risk

A new research has found that diesel fumes and cholesterol in combination can increase the heart disease risk.

The UCLA team of researchers conducted a study in which they combined the pollutants and the LDL and cultured them with the cells taken from the inner lining of the human blood cells. After culturing for a few hours they extracted the DNA for genetic analysis which showed activation of the genes promoting cellular inflammation. They also conducted the same test on mice with high cholesterol with the results being the same. The mechanism of this is still to be found out.

"The primary implication of our finding is that for people who have cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood cholesterol, simultaneous exposure to diesel air pollution can enhance damage by enhancing inflammation in the cardiovascular system," Dr. Andre Nel, chief of nanomedicine at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) reported.

The most saddening part of this research is that the damage caused by the combination of diesel particles and fat is multitude of what can be caused by both of them alone.