Figure 8: Altered gene expression following contact with an inhalative pollutant
By various mechanisms, the cell detects the inhaled pollutant (perception). This generates an intracellular signal, which is transferred by different cellular transduction systems and converge to transcription factors. Transcription factors are then transferred to the cell nucleus, where they bind to specific DNA-regions modifying the transcription into pre-mRNA. Following posttranscriptional modification, the resulting mature RNA leaves the nucleus into the cytoplasm, where the translation into a protein at the reibosoes takes place. The generated proteins can be excretes from the cell, integrate into the cell membrane to modify cell reactivity or serve as intracellular proteins various cell functions.