Evaluating Inflammatory Responses in in vitro Submerged Exposure to Aerosols

SEONGBIN JO, Liang-Hsin Chen, Shuichi Takayama, Nga Lee Ng, Georgia Institute of Technology

     Abstract Number: 291
     Working Group: Health-Related Aerosols

Abstract
In vitro studies using human lung cells or pneumocytes have been frequently used in studying human health effects. These studies’ high-throughput and pollutant-specific capabilities allow for screening of potential pulmonary toxic aerosols and determining biological mechanisms with small quantities of aerosols compared to in vivo tests. However, in vitro aerosol studies have challenges with respect to the use of more physiologically relevant cell culture and exposure methods. Typical methods of in vitro aerosol exposure include utilizing submerged exposure to the mono-cultured cells for toxicity studies. Typical submerged cells involve dissolving a portion of particulate constituents from filter samples in the media. On the other hand, cells cultured and exposed in air-liquid interface (ALI) ensures more physiologically relevant cell model though multiple challenges in aerosol distribution and deposition efficiency remain. Here, we demonstrated the inflammatory effects of submersion with different duration with our air-blood barrier array (ABBA) cell model. The ABBA cell model consists of endothelial and epithelial cells while epithelial cells are cultured in ALI. Our previous studies showed that inflammatory responses from submersion hinder investigating in vitro aerosol toxicity. Our results aim to improve the submerged cell exposure conditions to minimize background effects from inflammatory responses from submersion. Interleukin-8 (IL-8) and transepithelial electric resistance (TEER) will be measured with different conditions of submersion to evaluate the inflammatory response and barrier functions of the cells. The measured inflammatory responses are used to assess the submersion effects and determine more physiologically relevant exposure conditions.