https://doi.org/10.1007/s11626-020-00517-7

Xuefei Cao¹, Jayme P. Coyle², Rui Xiong¹, Yiying Wang¹, Robert H. Heflich¹, Baiping Ren¹, William M. Gwinn³, Patrick Hayden⁴, Liying Rojanasakul²

¹ Division of Genetic and Molecular Toxicology, National Center for Toxicological Research, US Food and Drug Administration, 3900 NCTR Rd., AR Jefferson, USA
² Allergy and Clinical Immunology Branch, Health Effects Laboratory Division, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers forDisease Control and Prevention,Morgantown,WV, USA
³ Division of the National Toxicology Program, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Durham, NC, USA
⁴ BioSurfaces Inc., Ashland, MA, USA

One important element for validating any new assay for making regulatory decisions is determining its performance relative to an accepted standard. Conducting in vivo inhalation toxicity studies using whole-body or nose-only exposure systems is expensive and time-consuming and typically requires a large number of animals. The goal of using alternative methods, like human in vitro ALI airway cultures, ultimately is to replace inhalation toxicity testing in animals with in vitro approaches. Transition from animal- to human-based models is ultimately expected to lead to faster and better predictive toxicity assessments and therapeutic development at lower cost.  This study shows the development and validation of alternative in vitro methods for acute toxicity testing, including acute inhalation toxicity testing.
 

Read more

New designs of electronic cigarettes such as ENDS (Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems) products or HTP (Heated Tobacco Products) lead to a large variety of different shapes which make the insertion into conventional holders with labyrinth seals impossible. VITROCELL® has developed a new holder system which is flexible to adjust to different shapes.

VITROCELL Application Note

Read more

DOI: 10.1164/rccm.201811-2087OC

Samuel Chung ^{1 2}, Nathalie Baumlin ^{1 2}, John S Dennis ^{1 2}, Robert Moore ², Sebastian F Salathe ², Phillip L Whitney ², Juan Sabater ³, William M Abraham ³, Michael D Kim ^{1 2}, Matthias Salathe ^{1 2
1}Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas.
²Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida; and.
³Department of Research, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami Beach, Florida.
 

The transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1) is a molecular target for vape effects due to its expression in airway epithelia and its reported gating by nicotine, reactive oxidants, and flavors, especially cinnamaldehyde. To test whether nicotine had effects independent of other e-cig vapor constituents, the Vitrocell® CLOUD exposure system was utilized to nebulize fixed nicotine doses onto the apical surface of ALI cultures. A549 cell cultures were exposed to nicotine containing e-cig vapor, produced by the VC-1 smoke exposure robot, in the air-liquid interface.

Read more

DOI: 10.1016/j.yrtph.2019.01.036

Czekala L¹, Simms L², Stevenson M², Tschierske N², Maione AG³, Walele T².
¹ Imperial Brands PLC, 121 Winterstoke Road, Bristol, BS3 2LL, UK. Electronic address: Lukasz.Czekala@uk.imptob.com.
² Imperial Brands PLC, 121 Winterstoke Road, Bristol, BS3 2LL, UK.
³ MatTek, 200 Homer Ave., Ashland, MA, USA.

In this research article a respiratory epithelial model, EpiAirway, was used to examine the biological effects of nicotine-containing blu PLUS + e-cigarettes, in comparison to conventional cigarette smoke. Tissues were exposed at the air-liquid interface to cigarette smoke or e-cigarette aerosol generated using a VITROCELL VC1 smoking/vaping robot. 

Read more

DOI: 10.1089/aivt.2018.0001
Holger Behrsing,¹ Mario Aragon,¹ Jason Adamson,² Devin Sheehan,¹ Marianna Gaca,² Rodger Curren,¹ and Erin Hill^1
1Respiratory Toxicology, Institute for In Vitro Sciences, Inc., Gaithersburg, Maryland.
²R&D, British American Tobacco, Southampton, United Kingdom.

The study shows an assessment of VC1 aerosol generation that was conducted by measuring puff-by-puff in vitro nicotine concentration of 3R4F cigarettes (ISO and HCI regimes), e-cigarette (CRM81 puffing profile), and THP (HCIm regime). The aerosols were applied to in vitro or ex vivo cellular and tissue systems that model the respiratory tract, such as reconstructed human airways (RHuA), which are grown at the air–liquid interface (ALI). Additionally a comparison between the Vitrocell VC1 (U.S. Laboratory) and the VC10 (UK Laboratory) Smoking Robot was done.

Read more