Understanding the effect of inflammation on the cytotoxicity of inhaled nanoparticles to human lungs epithelial cells

Abstract

Nanomaterials (NMs) are everywhere around the world, and it has been useful for humans consistently. However, it has also been proved to be harmful to humans as well, particularly in the pulmonary system. Although many studies have been conducted regarding the toxicity of NMs, it only studies the cells that are in healthy condition. At the same time, it is also important to consider people with lung diseases such as pulmonary edema, cystic fibrosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases that cause inflammation to their cells. Therefore, there is a need to study how inflammation affects the response of cells to NMs in terms of toxicity. Inflamed small airway epithelial cells (SAECs) were shown to have overexpression of protein markers and genes. They also showed to have a high susceptibility to high doses of NMs while healthy SAECs have low susceptibility. This difference happened because of the low level of antioxidants and proteolytic activity that negates the ROS level and mitigates NMs toxicity respectively. All the studies conducted can be support for further studies about nanotoxicology. Furthermore, future work could be conducted in terms of whether lung cells could adapt to NMs or not and compare the difference between healthy cells and inflamed cells.