Abstract
A substantial amount of traffic-related particle emissions is released by gasoline cars, since most diesel cars are now equipped with particle filters that reduce particle emissions. Little is known about adverse health effects of gasoline particles, and particularly, whether a gasoline particle filter (GPF) influences the toxicity of gasoline exhaust emissions. We drove a dynamic test cycle with a gasoline car and studied the effect of a GPF on exhaust composition and airway toxicity. We exposed human bronchial epithelial cells (ECs) for 6 hours, and compared results with and without GPF. Two hours later, primary human natural killer cells (NKs) were added to ECs to form cocultures, while some ECs were grown as monocultures. The following day, cells were analyzed for cytotoxicity, cell surface receptor expression, intracellular markers, oxidative DNA damage, gene expression, and oxidative stress. The particle amount was significantly reduced due to GPF application. While most biological endpoints did not differ, oxidative DNA damage was significantly reduced in EC monocultures exposed to GPF compared to reference exhaust. Our findings indicate that a GPF has beneficial effects on exhaust composition and airway toxicity. Further studies are needed to assess long-term effects, also in other cell types of the lung.
Highlights
It is well known that air pollution, and especially inhalable particulate matter, is responsible for adverse health effects, including cardiopulmonary diseases[1,2,3]
The particle number (PN) concentration was significantly lower for the gasoline particle filters (GPF) exhaust compared to the reference condition (Fig. 2D)
The mean diameter of the particles increased due to the use of the GPF: under reference condition we observed particles with a mean diameter of 64 nm, and a peak at 69 nm in diameter
Summary
It is well known that air pollution, and especially inhalable particulate matter, is responsible for adverse health effects, including cardiopulmonary diseases[1,2,3]. Deduced from diesel particle filters, the first gasoline particle filters (GPF), both coated and uncoated, have been recently developed and proven to dramatically reduce particulate emissions from gasoline engines[19,20,21,22]. Epithelial cells (ECs) are the main cells in the human airways They build a tight barrier in order to protect against pathogens and particles entering the human body[23]. Our aim was to study the impact of a coated GPF on the cell toxic effects of gasoline exhaust emissions in two models of the human airways: (1) in monocultures of bronchial ECs; and (2) in cocultures of ECs and primary NKs. We exposed our cell models at the air-liquid interface to freshly produced whole exhaust emissions from a gasoline passenger car following a dynamic driving cycle in a previously verified exposure system[32]
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