Abstract
Exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM) is found to be associated with adverse cardiopulmonary diseases. Endotoxin presented in PM is suggested to be one of the most important factors in triggering pro-inflammatory cytokine/chemokine release upon the exposure of PM. Pre-treated with endotoxin is found to enhance the inflammatory responses induced by PM in cultured cells. The aim of present study is to investigate the roles of endotoxin on the cytotoxicity and the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced by PM2.5 in a human lung epithelial cell line A549. The results find that PM2.5 induced a dose-dependent decrease in cell viability and pre-treated with endotoxin did not change the cytotoxicity of PM2.5 in A549 cells. Nevertheless the endotoxin significantly reduced the ROS generation in A549 induced by PM2.5 at the dose of 400 μg/mL. The results indicated that the combined effects of endotoxin and PM were complex and deserved further investigations.
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