High-content analysis of particulate matters-induced oxidative stress and organelle dysfunction in vitro

Oxidative stress is usually considered to be a common mechanism by which particulate matter (PM) exposure induces adverse effects. However, the further biological events such as organelle dysfunction following oxidative stress remain to be explored. In this study, we applied high-content screening (HCS) technique to investigate the toxicological effects of carbon black (CB), diesel exhaust particle (DEP) and PM2.5 on oxidative stress and organelle function in human bronchial epithelial cell (16HBE), human embryo lung fibroblast cell (HELF) and human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) which were used to represent distinct regions of the lung, and compared the toxicity impacts of different PMs and the sensitiveness of cell lines. We found three types of PMs induced mitochondrial dysfunction in three cell lines and lysosomal alkalinization in HUVEC while only CB triggered endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in 16HBE and HUVEC, and oxidative stress might mediate these processes. Moreover, CB basically exhibited more potent toxicity compared with DEP and PM2.5, which might be attributed to its less oxygen content. Finally, the finding that PMs-induced toxicity impacts exhibited a cell-type dependent manner might provide some information to help to understand the sensitivity of different tissue in the lung.