- Long-term low-level ambient benzene exposure associated with 26% higher incident NAFLD risk per IQR (0.151 μg/m3), with a nonlinear exposure-response.
- Accelerated biological ageing mediates 6.5% of benzene's effect on NAFLD; homeostatic dysregulation and allostatic load contribute modestly.
- No multiplicative interaction between benzene exposure and polygenic risk, but their cumulative effect raises NAFLD risk; ML model AUC 0.753, NHANES biomarker consistent.
iScience. 2026 Sep 30;29(10):117035. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2026.117035. eCollection 2026 Oct 16.
ABSTRACT
The contribution of ambient air pollutants to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) remains undefined. This study included 401,472 adults from the UK Biobank (UKB), with residential benzene estimated at 1-km resolution from the DEFRA model (2006-2020). After multivariable adjustment in the Cox models, each interquartile-range (0.151 μg/m3) increment in benzene was associated with a 26% higher risk of incident NAFLD (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.26; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.21-1.30), following a nonlinear exposure-response relationship. Accelerated biological aging mediated 6.5% of this association, whereas homeostatic dysregulation and allostatic load contributed modestly. Benzene exposure and polygenic risk showed no multiplicative interaction, but their cumulative effect raised NAFLD risk among highly susceptible individuals. A machine-learning model integrating benzene and covariates predicted NAFLD with good discrimination (AUC = 0.753), and an external urinary-biomarker analysis in NHANES was directionally consistent. Thus, long-term low-level benzene exposure increases incident NAFLD risk, partly through accelerated biological aging.
PMID:42866231 | PMC:PMC13657151 | DOI:10.1016/j.isci.2026.117035
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