Sandro Steiner, Shoaib Majeed, Gilles Kratzer, Mounir Rhouma, Quentin Dutertre, Grégory Vuillaume, Arno Knorr, Julia Hoeng, Stefan Frentzel
Philip Morris International R&D, Philip Morris Products S.A.
Characterization of the Vitrocell® 24/48 aerosol exposure system for its use in conjunction with liquid aerosols shows a high feasibility for an easy detection of aerosol deposition.
Introduction and Objectives
The increasing market presence of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) requires establishing adequate in vitro methodologies for their appropriate toxicological assessment. In this context, the possibility of conducting controlled in vitro aerosol exposures resulting in reproducible dose delivery becomes very important. Moreover the delivered doses need to be relevant for in vivo exposures and comparable to in vitro reference exposures – commonly exposures to cigarette smoke.
We performed an experimental system characterization of the Vitrocell®24/48 aerosol exposure system for its use in conjunction with aerosols generated from e-cigarettes in order to assess the suitability of the system for this application (1). A glycerol model aerosol with a particle size distribution representative of aerosols generated by e-cigarettes was used for exposing small volumes of phosphate-buffered saline placed into the exposure chambers of the Vitrocell®24/48 as surrogates for cell cultures. Disodium fluorescein added as a tracer in the aerosol allowed the exact particle mass delivery to each exposure chamber to be quantified fluorometrically with the ultimate goal of determining the dose delivery as function of aerosol dilution, the uniformity of delivery to replica positions and the repeatability of exposures. The observed dose delivery was in addition put into relation to the delivery of smoke generated from 3R4F research cigarettes.
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