Faruqui, Nilofar;
Orell, Sofie;
Dondi, Camilla;
Leni, Zaira;
Kalbermatter, Daniel M;
Gefors, Lina;
Rissler, Jenny;
... Larsson-Callerfelt, Anna-Karin; + view all
(2025)
Differential Cytotoxicity and Inflammatory Responses to Particulate Matter Components in Airway Structural Cells.
International Journal of Molecular Sciences
, 26
(2)
, Article 830. 10.3390/ijms26020830.
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Abstract
Particulate matter (PM) is a major component of ambient air pollution. PM exposure is linked to numerous adverse health effects, including chronic lung diseases. Air quality guidelines designed to regulate levels of ambient PM are currently based on the mass concentration of different particle sizes, independent of their origin and chemical composition. The objective of this study was to assess the relative hazardous effects of carbonaceous particles (soot), ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, and copper oxide (CuO), which are standard components of ambient air, reflecting contributions from primary combustion, secondary inorganic constituents, and non-exhaust emissions (NEE) from vehicular traffic. Human epithelial cells representing bronchial (BEAS-2B) and alveolar locations (H441 and A549) in the airways, human lung fibroblasts (HFL-1), and rat precision-cut lung slices (PCLS) were exposed in submerged cultures to different concentrations of particles for 5–72 h. Following exposure, cell viability, metabolic activity, reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation, and inflammatory responses were analyzed. CuO and, to a lesser extent, soot reduced cell viability in a dose-dependent manner, increased ROS formation, and induced inflammatory responses. Ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate did not elicit any significant cytotoxic responses but induced immunomodulatory alterations at very high concentrations. Our findings demonstrate that secondary inorganic components of PM have a lower hazard cytotoxicity compared with combustion-derived and indicative NEE components, and alveolar epithelial cells are more sensitive to PM exposure. This information should help to inform which sources of PM to target and feed into improved, targeted air quality guidelines.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Differential Cytotoxicity and Inflammatory Responses to Particulate Matter Components in Airway Structural Cells |
| Location: | Switzerland |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3390/ijms26020830 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26020830 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | Particulate matter; elemental and organic carbon; copper oxide; ammonium salts; epithelial cells; lung fibroblasts; precision-cut lung slices |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Computer Science |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10206828 |
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