EDN1 and inflammatory response: Acute and chronic exposures to vehicular source pollutants and PM components have been associated with endothelial dysfunction and the development and progression of a wide range of cardiovascular diseases, activation of ET-1-ET (A) receptor pathways, persistent lung inflammation, up-regulation of cerebro-vascular ETA receptors via the Raf/ERK/MAPK pathway, and increases in plasma ET-1 and pulmonary artery pressure (Calderón-Garcidueñas et al., 2007; Tamagawa et al., 2008; Lund et al., 2009; Cao et al., 2011; Krishnan et al., 2012).