Improvement of methodology to study ICAM-1 and CXCL-5 expressions of ambient particles, in vitro

Inhalation of ambient particulate matter is associated with adverse effects on human health. At the outset, the objective of this thesis was to identify what components of ambient particles cause more significant different responses of secreted biomolecules from human lung epithelial (A549) cells, in vitro, using a method a previous graduate student developed to assess ICAM-1 expression. However problems with this methodology were identified, and the majority of this work was to find solutions to these problems. Different particles (LPS-plus-carbon particles, LPS-plus-carbon-plus-Ni(NO3)2 particles, LPS-plus-carbon-plus-NaCl particles, LPS-plus-carbon-plus-Zn(NO3)2 particles, H2SO4-plus-carbon particles, (NH4)2SO4-plus-carbon particles, and Na2SO4-plus-carbon particles) were generated in situ and were levitated using an electrodynamic trap prior to their deposition onto A549 cells. Following an incubation period, the detectable differential expression of ICAM-1 was monitored using an immunocytochemistry assay. The expression of a secreted cytokine (CXCL-5) was monitored by MALDI-TOF-MS.