COMPARATIVE-ANALYSIS OF CYTOTOXIC AND GENOTOXIC EFFECTS OF AIRBORNE-PARTICULATES ON HUMAN AND RODENT RESPIRATORY CELLS IN-VITRO

In our highly industrialized world air pollution has become an importa nt topic. Beside gaseous pollutants airborne particulates are of great medical concern, containing several hundred mostly organic substances . They are incriminated to cause an excess mortality. Airborne particu lates were collected in the heavily industrialized Ruhr region utilizi ng a high volume sampler HVS 150 (Strohlein Instruments) equipped with glass fibre filters. Chemical substances were extracted with dichloro methane and quantitatively transferred to dimethyl sulfoxide for tissu e culture experiments. Cytotoxicity of extracts was determined by redu ction of 'plating efficiency' of human cell line A-549 (pneumocyte typ e II). The induction of 'sister chromatid exchanges' was used as a sen sitive bioassay for detection of genotoxic activity of airborne partic ulates. As target cells we utilized tracheal epithelial cells of the S yrian golden hamster and the rat, human bronchial epithelial cells of line BEAS-2B and human lymphocytes. Quantities of substances equivalen t to airborne particulates from 4 and more m(3) air exerted cytotoxic effects, while quantities of substances from 0.5 m(3) of air were mark edly genotoxic. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.