{
  "abstract": "Introduction Phenanthrene (Phe) is a global air pollutant belonging to the family of compounds known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; these pollutants are formed from the combustion of organic material. Phe has been reported to be the most common PAH found in humans and has been linked to detrimental cardiometabolic effects including arrythmias, cardiac hypertrophy, hypertension, dyslipidaemia and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Due to its lipophilic and hydrophobic nature Phe accumulates in fat tissue. Perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) is a specialised adipose tissue depot that surrounds most systemic blood vessels and releases vasoactive factors which, in health, act to reduce vascular contractility and in turn reduce blood pressure. This protective effect is lost in obesity where adipose tissue expands and becomes hypoxic and inflamed. While its effects on different adipose tissue depots have been investigated, the effects of Phe exposure on PVAT and vascular contractility have not.Methods To address this unmet area, we aimed to first determine the effects of acute Phe exposure on vascular contractility. To this end, mesenteric resistance arteries (≤250 µm diameter) were dissected from control male and female C57BL/6j mice and mounted into a wire myograph to measure contractility. Artery segments with and without PVAT (±PVAT) were incubated with 25 µM Phe for 15 minutes. Following this, the contraction in response to various vasoconstrictors including noradrenaline (NA; 1x10 -9 to 3x10-4 M), phenylephrine (PE; 1x10-9 to 3x10-4 M) and U46619 (1x10-10 to 3x10-5 M) was recorded.Results With all the vasoconstrictors tested, Phe reduced the overall contractility of -PVAT vessels (n=8 all experiments, NA: P<0.001, PE: P<0.0001, U46619: P<0.001), however in +PVAT vessels the contractile responses were unaffected by Phe. Conversely, in +PVAT vessels from males Phe increased the contraction in response to NA (P<0.05) at the highest concentration of NA used. At the start of each experiment, vessel integrity is tested using a 60 mM high K + physiological salt solution. Interestingly, Phe had no effect on the response to high K+ suggesting that the attenuated vasoconstrictor responses are not due to effects of Phe on vessel viability.Conclusions Acutely, phenanthrene reduces the contractility blood vessels without PVAT; this effect is not seen in vessels with intact PVAT and in +PVAT arteries from male animals Phe appears to increase the contractility of vessels in response to high NA. This data suggests a protective role of PVAT against the effects of air pollutants. The role that Phe plays in vascular disease requires further investigation.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "University of Manchester"
      ],
      "name": "Temiloluwa Somorin"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "University of Medical Sciences"
      ],
      "name": "Adeyomoye Ororunsola Israel"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "University of Manchester"
      ],
      "name": "Ellie England"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "University of Manchester"
      ],
      "name": "Holly Shiels"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "University of Manchester"
      ],
      "name": "Sophie Saxton"
    }
  ],
  "title": "BS43 The air pollutant, phenanthrene, acutely reduces blood vessel contractility",
  "uid": "2a02b74c-33f1-53d9-8442-b94e52f1a50a"
}