NF Aerosols and Health

Duration: 2009-2012

Contact: Josef Dommen, josef.dommen@psi.ch

There is an urgent need to support the epidemiological evidence by biological experiments aimed directly at the cause-effect relationship: What are the primary biological causes of the epidemiologically proven effect of airborne particles and other pollutants on morbidity and mortality? What are the most relevant particle properties and what are the crucial responses of the biological system?

In this project we further improve an aerosol deposition chamber for in vitro testing of health effects of inhaled fine and ultrafine particles (Savi et al. 2008). The basic units of the system are, (i) efficient, uniform and reproducible deposition of particles on cell cultures out of a gas flow, (ii) organotypic cell cultures that maintain the lung-specific functions, and (iii) measurement of endpoints indicative for lung homeostasis (Gaschen et al., 2010). A large number of oxidizing particle components have been postulated to correlate with health effects of ambient particles but there are no unambiguous results so far, partially due to lack of appropriate analytical techniques. Peroxides might be one of these species. Therefore, we will develop a sensitive analytical method to determine the total amount of peroxides in aerosols. We will examine the responses of lung cell cultures to primary and secondary organic aerosols (POA and SOA) originating from diesel exhaust and wood combustion processed and aged in our large-scale smog chamber under conditions replicating the in vivo situation. Aerosols will be monitored and characterized before, during and post exposure with emphasis on the chemical analysis of oxidative particle components such as peroxides.

This project is in collaboration with Prof. Marianne Geiser Kamber, Institut für Anatomie, University of Berne

Journal Articles

Savi, M.; Kalberer, M.; Lang, D.; Ryser, M.; Fierz, M.; Gaschen, A.; Rička, J., Geiser, M. A novel exposure system for the efficient and controlled deposition of aerosol particles onto cell cultures. Environ. Sci. Techn. 42:5667-5674 (2008), DOI: 10.1021/es703075q
Gaschen A, Lang D, Kalberer M, Savi M, Geiser T, Gazdhar A, Lehr C-M, Bur M, Dommen J, Baltensperger U, Geiser M. Cellular responses after exposure of lung cell cultures to secondary organic aerosol particles. Environ Sci Technol 44:1424-1430 (2010)), DOI: 10.1021/es902261m

Conference Contributions

Geiser M., Responses of Lung Cell Cultures after Realistic Exposure to Primary and Secondary Carbonaceous Aerosols, 15th ETH Conference on Combustion Generated Particles, Zürich 2011.