Emerging Technologies for In Vitro Inhalation Toxicology.

Respiratory toxicology remains a major research area in the 21st century since current scenario of airborne viral infection transmission and pollutant inhalation is expected to raise the annual morbidity beyond 2 million. Clinical and epidemiological research connecting human exposure to air contaminants to understand adverse pulmonary health outcomes is, therefore, an immediate subject of human health assessment. Important observations in defining systemic effects of environmental contaminants on inhalation metabolic dysfunction, liver health, and gastrointestinal tract have been well explored with in vivo models.

Use of Cause-and-Effect Analysis to Optimize the Reliability of Inhalation Toxicity Measurements Using an Air-Liquid Interface.

inhalation toxicology methods are increasingly being used for research and regulatory purposes. Although the opportunity for increased human relevance of inhalation methods compared to tests has been established and discussed, how to systematically account for variability and maximize the reliability of these methods, especially for assays that use cells cultured at an air-liquid interface (ALI), has received less attention. One tool that has been used to evaluate the robustness of test methods is cause-and-effect (C&E) analysis, a conceptual approach to analyze key sources of potential variability in a test method.

Parametric Optimization of an Air-Liquid Interface System for Flow-Through Inhalation Exposure to Nanoparticles: Assessing Dosimetry and Intracellular Uptake of CeO Nanoparticles.

Air-liquid interface (ALI) systems have been widely used in recent years to investigate the inhalation toxicity of many gaseous compounds, chemicals, and nanomaterials and represent an emerging and promising method to supplement studies. ALI exposure reflects the physiological conditions of the deep lung more closely to subacute inhalation scenarios compared to submerged exposure. The comparability of the toxicological results obtained from and inhalation data is still challenging.

Nanoparticle induced barrier function assessment at liquid-liquid and air-liquid interface in novel human lung epithelia cell lines.

Inhalation is the most relevant entry point for nanoparticles (NPs) into the human body. To date, toxicity testing of nanomaterials in respect to oral, dermal and inhalative application is mainly based on animal experiments. The development of alternative test methods is the subject of current research.

ToF-SIMS 3D imaging unveils important insights on the cellular microenvironment during biomineralization of gold nanostructures.

The biomolecular imaging of cell-nanoparticle (NP) interactions using time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) represents an evolving tool in nanotoxicology. In this study we present the three dimensional (3D) distribution of nanomaterials within biomolecular agglomerates using ToF-SIMS imaging. This novel approach was used to model the resistance of human alveolar A549 cells against gold (Au) ion toxicity through intra- and extracellular biomineralization.

The impact of nanomaterial characteristics on inhalation toxicity.

During the last few decades, nanotechnology has evolved into a success story, apparent from a steadily increasing number of scientific publications as well as a large number of applications based on engineered nanomaterials (ENMs). Its widespread uses suggest a high relevance for consumers, workers and the environment, hence justifying intensive investigations into ENM-related adverse effects as a prerequisite for nano-specific regulations. In particular, the inhalation of airborne ENMs, being assumed to represent the most hazardous type of human exposure to these kinds of particles, needs to be scrutinized.