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L’inquinamento atmosferico invecchia

il cervello: i risultati di uno studio

Unimore

Air pollution ages the brain: the results of a Unimore study

The researchers of the Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Science, led by professor

Marco Vinceti, are conducting a particularly innovative study on the correlations between the increa-
se in the risk of dementia and air pollution.
The study, named “The association between air pollutants and hippocampal volume from magnetic
resonance imaging” was recently published on “Environmental Research”, an international journal

of Public Health and Environmental Medicine. Research has shown that air pollution by fine particles
and nitrogen oxides negatively affects the volume of the hippocampus and consequently its very
important cognitive and memory functions, increasing the risk of dementia.

On the other hand, there is no link between damage to the hippocampus and nitrogen dioxide,
another known pollutant generated by combustion sources, including car traffic and domestic hea-
ting systems. The activities of the research group continue to systematically investigate the effects of
the exposure to environmental risk factors on brain structures.

The study was supported by the project “Excellence Departments 2018-2022” and the funding
“University Fund for Research” Unimore-Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena 2019, which
has been awarded to professor Marco Vinceti. Professor Vinceti will carry it forward together with Dr.
Erica Balboni, first author of the research, Dr. Tommaso Filippini, along with the team led by professor
Giovanna Zamboni, with Doctors Gabriele Guidi and Luca Nocetti, and professor Giuseppe Pagnoni,
within an international collaboration with researchers of the Brain Research Center, the Institute of

Global Health in Barcelona and the American universities of Harvard and Brigham Young.

n gruppo di ricercatori e ri- prima meta-analisi dose-risposta mai realizzata
cercatrici, guidati dal Prof. riguardante gli effetti dell’inquinamento atmosfe-
Marco Vinceti, sta inda- rico sull’ippocampo, struttura cerebrale di grande
gando sulle correlazioni tra importanza per la memoria e per il decadimento
Ul’aumento del rischio di de- co-gnitivo.

menza e l’inquinamento atmosferico. Prima autrice della ricerca è la ventiquattrenne
Quello condotto dai ricercatori del Diparti- modenese Erica Balboni, laureatasi in Fisica ad

mento di Scienze Biomediche, Metaboliche Unimore, attualmente specializzanda in Fisica Sa-
e Neuroscienze è uno studio particolarmen- nitaria presso il Policlinico di Modena e assegnista
te innovativo: essi hanno infatti pubblicato la di ricerca al Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche,

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