Born Smart

There is enormous resistance from many countries on cutting emissions and you have to wonder whether it will make a difference if they know what it’s doing to their children.

A new study on air pollution found that polluted air curb the normal growth of a developing baby. The authors suggest that it may alter cell activity or cut the amount of oxygen and nutrients the baby receives in the womb.

It is likely that the process of “cellular respiration” plays a role. Every breath of air you breathe is transported via the blood to the mitochondria in your cells. It is here that your cells use the oxygen to convert nutrients in your food to energy for your body to use. It is possible that air pollution cut the amount of oxygen a baby receives and thereby also the amount of nutrients resulting in the curb of normal growth.

Another breakthrough in the area of cellular respiration sheds more light on this issue. The study identified the gene Tfb1m responsible for regulating cellular respiration and their study showed that without this gene, cellular respiration was not possible. This raises the question whether pollutants in our air is possibly altering the expression of Tfb1m and in doing so reducing nutrients to a developing baby.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/145558.php

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/145627.php