LAUSR

Epidemiological and experimental evidence has been associating the exposure with ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) with metabolic malfunctions such as obesity and cardiovascular disease. As the blood-filter and the important lymphatic organ, spleen participates in the regulation of metabolic balance. In this work, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based lipidomics, metabolomics and proteomics were performed to study the effects of PM2.5 exposure and high-fat diet (HFD) induced obesity on mice spleen. By comparing the differences in lipids, metabolites, and proteins in the spleens from PM2.5 and HFD treated mice, we discovered the individual and combined effects of the two risk factors. The results showed the PM2.5 exposure altered energy metabolism of the mice, as evidenced by the upregulation of TCA cycle. In addition, the metabolism of branched-chain amino acids was also significantly changed, which might be related to the preventive function of spleen in lipid metabolism. The PM2.5-induced metabolic changes in spleen could further aggravate the adverse impacts of HFD on mice, resulting in impeded splenic metabolism of lipids. This study revealed the effects of PM2.5 and obesity mice spleen, which might be of great significance to public health.