Development of Alternative In Vitro Methods to Assess Pulmonary Toxicity of Inhaled Fine and Nano-sized Particles
Project Information
| Principal Investigator | David B Warheit |
| Institution | DuPont Haskell Laboratory for Health and Environmental Sciences |
| Project URL | View |
| Relevance to Implications | High |
| Class of Nanomaterial | Engineered Nanomaterials |
| Impact Sector | Human Health |
| Broad Research Categories |
Hazard
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Funding Information
| Country | USA |
| Anticipated Total Funding | n/a |
| Annual Funding | n/a |
| Funding Source | DuPont |
| Funding Mechanism | Intramural |
| Funding Sector | Industry |
| Start Year | |
| Anticipated End Year | |
Abstract/Summary
The successful development of in vitro assays with cultured pulmonary cells and dusts is considered to be useful as a predictive screen during the early phases of product development and inhalation toxicity testing. The potential advantages of these tests result from the fact that they are simpler, faster, and less expensive than their in vivo counterparts. Moreover, successful development of this in vitro system will result in the reduction of animal use for screening studies of potential pulmonary toxicants. Although implementation of an in vitro lung toxicity screening system would represent a significant advancement, the accuracy of results from in vitro screening studies with both particles and fibers has been questioned. Thus, we are attempting to devise a systematic method for assessing the efficacy of in vitro studies and compare the results to data obtained from in vivo pulmonary bioassay studies. Accordingly, we are evaluating two pulmonary cell types, i.e. rat lung epithelial cells (L2) cells and rat alveolar macrophages (AMs) both separately as well as in a co-culture system for implementation in vitro studies with particulates and to correlate the results of in vitro studies with data generated from pulmonary bioassay studies in rats using the same fine-sized and nano-sized particle-types.
