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299 A CTS team approach to assess the in vitro toxicity of microplastic fibers to human lung epithelial cells cultured at an air-liquid interface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2024

Amber O'Connor
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental & Global Health, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
Sripriya Nannu Shankar
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA Department of Environmental and Public Health Sciences, University of Cincinnati, OH, USA
Anna Lewis
Affiliation:
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University, Durham, USA
Lee Ferguson
Affiliation:
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University, Durham, USA
Chang-Yu Wu
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA Department of Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Miami, FL, USA
Tara-Sabo Attwood
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental & Global Health, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
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Abstract

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OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Our goal is to determine whether microplastic fibers (MPFs) provide signals for dendritic cell-induced Th2 polarization via epithelial-cell-derived thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP). We seek to highlight a potential mechanism for MPF-induced airway toxicity associated with asthma exacerbation. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Primary human bronchial epithelial cells (NHBEs) were grown and differentiated at an air-liquid interface. Dyed and undyed polyester MPFs (14x45 µm) generated using a cryomicrotome were delivered to NHBEs through a custom designed mesh-hopper system. After the exposure period (6, 12, 24 hrs), cell viability was assessed using alamarBlue, and RT-qPCR was performed to determine mRNA expression of asthma associated genes (i.e., TSLP, IL-13, IL-33, etc.,) in NHBEs. Bulk mRNA-sequencing followed by bioinformatics will be performed to observe other plausible pathways tweaked by lung cell exposure to MPFs. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Through gravimetric analysis, it was determined that the mesh-hopper system can achieve delivery efficiencies of at least 85% for as low as 500 fibers. Following exposure, results show polyester MPFs (500 - 1,000 fibers) exposed to NHBEs at multiple time points (6, 12, 24 hrs) did not result in a statistically significant decrease in cell viability. Treatment with 500 undyed MPFs resulted in a slight increase in TSLP expression at 6 hrs that decreased over time, whereas all other treatment groups resulted in TSLP downregulation. Similarly, 500 undyed MPFs resulted in an increase in IL-13 expression at both 6 and 12 hrs with all other treatment groups leading to IL-13 downregulation. We anticipate the RNA-seq results will show pro-inflammatory pathways are highly targeted following NHBE exposure to MPFs. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: This study is one of the first to mechanistically assess the impact of MPFs on lung cells while simultaneously addressing the need for a reliable system that delivers MPFs to ALI cultures to better mimic inhalation and avoid inadequate resuspension of particles in liquid medium.

Type
Informatics and Data Science
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. The Association for Clinical and Translational Science