Abstract Background Air pollution particles exacerbate allergic asthma and can enhance inflammatory responses to allergen exposure, but the cellular mechanisms involved remain incompletely defined. We examined how diesel exhaust particles (DEP) enhance house-dust-mite (HDM) inflammatory responses within the lung and characterised potential mechanisms that may contribute to enhanced type 2 (T2) inflammatory responses. Results In mice subjected to repeated intranasal exposures, DEP alone had modest effects, whereas DEP + HDM markedly increased type-2 inflammatory indicators (Serum IgE; Airway Il13, Il4 Ccl24-Ccr3 to recruit eosinophils). These findings identify luminal recruited macrophages as important targets in allergic inflammation within the lung, providing insight into potential mechanisms from which exposure and disease mitigation strategies may be developed.
Meldrum et al. (2026) studied this question.