AAAR 31st Annual Conference
October 8-12, 2012
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Toxicological Effects of Fresh and Aged Particulate Matter Emissions from a Wood Stove in Two Different Combustion Conditions
PASI, I JALAVA, Oskari Uski, Joakim Pagels, Erik, Z Nordin, Axel Eriksson, Christoffer Boman, Robin Nyström, Jorma Jokiniemi, Maija-Riitta Hirvonen, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland
Abstract Number: 94 Working Group: Health Related Aerosols
Abstract We studied the toxicological effects including inflammation, cytotoxicity and genotoxicity in mouse macrophage cells, which are the primary defense cell type in the airways against the particulate exposure. RAW264.7 macrophages were exposed for 24 hrs to four doses (15, 50, 150 and 300 micrograms in milliliter) of the particles from four different biomass combustion aerosols. Emissions from "nominal" and "poor" combustion conditions in a wood stove firing birch logs were used, either fresh or aged with ozone in a chamber of 17 cubic meters in volume. The production of cytokines (TNF alpha, MIP-2), and cytotoxicity (MTT, PI-exclusion, apoptosis and cell cycle) was analyzed thereafter. Genotoxic properties of the particulate samples were investigated with the Comet assay.
Exposure to particulate samples caused marked cytotoxicity, particles from poor combustion being significantly more cytotoxic than those from nominal conditions. In both cases aging of the aerosol increased their cytotoxicity. In addition, the emissions from poor combustion conditions increased the inflammatory response in the cells when compared to nominal conditions. Aging increased the inflammatory potential of particulate sample from nominal condition, but decreased that of poor combustion sample. All the samples induced similar genotoxic responses, but aging increased substantially the response by poor combustion sample. Genotoxicity of the largest dose of poor combustion particles could not be analyzed due to large cytotoxicity.
Accordingly, both combustion conditions and atmospheric transformation processes may affect the toxicological properties of the emitted particles from small-scale wood combustion, which may have significant role in the harmfulness of the ambient particulate matter.