Publications by authors named "H Burtscher"

Brain metastasis leads to increased mortality and is a major site of relapse for several cancers, yet the molecular mechanisms of brain metastasis are not well understood. In this study, we established and characterized a new leukemic cell line, FIA10, that metastasizes into the central nervous system (CNS) following injection into the tail vein of syngeneic mice. Mice injected with FIA10 cells developed neurological symptoms such as loss of balance, tremor, ataxic gait and seizures, leading to death within 3 months.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Health effects of particulate matter (PM) from aircraft engines have not been adequately studied since controlled laboratory studies reflecting realistic conditions regarding aerosols, target tissue, particle exposure and deposited particle dose are logistically challenging. Due to the important contributions of aircraft engine emissions to air pollution, we employed a unique experimental setup to deposit exhaust particles directly from an aircraft engine onto reconstituted human bronchial epithelia (HBE) at air-liquid interface under conditions similar to in vivo airways to mimic realistic human exposure. The toxicity of non-volatile PM (nvPM) from a CFM56-7B26 aircraft engine was evaluated under realistic engine conditions by sampling and exposing HBE derived from donors of normal and compromised health status to exhaust for 1 h followed by biomarker analysis 24 h post exposure.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Aircraft emissions can harm the air we breathe both close to airports and around the world.
  • Scientists studied how particles from a common airplane engine affect human lung cells, using a special setup to mimic real flight conditions.
  • Their findings showed that even small amounts of these particles can harm lung cells, especially those from planes using regular fuel.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The number of daily products containing nanoparticles (NP) is rapidly increasing. NP in powders, dispersions, or sprays are a yet unknown risk for incidental exposure, especially at workplaces during NP production and processing, and for consumers of any health status and age using NP containing sprays. We developed the nano aerosol chamber for in vitro toxicity (NACIVT), a portable instrument for realistic safety testing of inhaled NP in vitro and evaluated effects of silver (Ag) and carbon (C) NP-which belong to the most widely used nanomaterials-on normal and compromised airway epithelia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Inhalation of engineered nanoparticles (NP) poses a still unknown risk. Individuals with chronic lung diseases are expected to be more vulnerable to adverse effects of NP than normal subjects, due to altered respiratory structures and functions. Realistic and dose-controlled aerosol exposures were performed using the deposition chamber NACIVT.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF