Protein levels, air pollution and vitamin D deficiency: links with allergy

a) Heatmap showing expression of the five proteins downregulated in the participants with high NO₂ and low vitamin D levels. b) Gene ontology annotation and c) the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database was used to identify significantly enriched biological processes and pathways, with the Benjamini p-value shown. The expression of selected proteins were compared between d) low (n=50) and high NO₂ (n=24) groups, and e) in the individuals with (n=16) and without (n=54) mixed grass pollen (Kentucky bluegrass, orchard, redtop, timothy, sweet vernal grass and meadow fescue) allergy using general linear models, with adjustment for sex and smoking status. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to group the correlated proteins in the complement and coagulation cascades, with generation of two scores: PCA1 (56%) and PCA2 (35%). PLG: plasminogen; CFI: complement factor I; PROS1: protein S (alpha).