{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,23]],"date-time":"2026-08-23T05:20:32Z","timestamp":1787462432527,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]],"date-time":"2026-08-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787270400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["81961128031"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["81961128031"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["81573112"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["81573112"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"award":["81961128031"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["81961128031"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01h0zpd94","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["81573112"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["81573112"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01h0zpd94","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Key Science and Technology Program of Henan Province, China","award":["252102310190"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["252102310190"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004761","name":"Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province, China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["262300420665"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["262300420665"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004761","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Toxics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Ozone (O3) is a prevalent environmental pollutant that can induce oxidative stress and respiratory epithelial injury. Dysregulation of pulmonary microbiota homeostasis plays an important role in the progression of lung damage and inflammatory responses. However, there remains a lack of systematic research on the effects of O3 exposure on pulmonary microecology and its potential association with pulmonary inflammation. In this study, twenty-three SPF-grade C57BL\/6N male mice (aged 6\u20137 weeks) were randomly divided into a filtered air control group (n = 11) and an O3 exposure group (n = 12). Mice in the O3 group underwent whole-body inhalation exposure to 1 ppm O3 for 4 h daily over 8 consecutive weeks, while control mice were maintained under identical conditions with filtered air exposure. The 1 ppm concentration (equivalent to 0.2\u20130.3 ppm in humans) and 8-week daily 4 h exposure regimen was selected to model the 2-month summer high-O3 season with typical afternoon O3 peaks. The results showed that the O3-exposed group exhibited marked inflammatory infiltrates in the lung, as well as significantly elevated macrophage inflammatory protein-2 (MIP-2) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-\u03b1) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluids compared with controls. Pulmonary microbiota sequencing revealed that O3 exposure significantly elevated the Shannon index of pulmonary microbiota in mice, and four differential genera including Deinococcus, Aerococcus, Enterococcus and Proteiniphilum were identified. Correlation analysis revealed that MIP-2 was significantly correlated with Aerococcus. In conclusion, the findings of this study suggest that exposure to O3 induces inflammation and significant changes in the microbial composition of the lungs, which provides an experimental basis for further investigating mechanisms linking microbiota dysbiosis to lung injury triggered by ambient air pollutants.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/toxics14080736","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]],"date-time":"2026-08-21T11:37:34Z","timestamp":1787312254000},"page":"736","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Ozone Exposure Induces Pulmonary Microbiota Dysbiosis and Associated Inflammatory Responses in Mice"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Ya","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Public Health, Henan Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, China"},{"name":"School of Health Nursing, Zhenjiang College, Zhenjiang 212028, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Laibao","family":"Zhuo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Public Health, Henan Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yue","family":"Du","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Public Health, Henan Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuxuan","family":"Chai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Public Health, Henan Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jiayin","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Public Health, Henan Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Keyang","family":"Han","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Public Health, Henan Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Juan","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Public Health, Henan Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Weidong","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Public Health, Henan Medical University, Xinxiang 453003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhang, J.J., Wei, Y., and Fang, Z. 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