In vitro Cannabis Exposures of Lung Epithelial Cells at the Air-Liquid Interface

Cannabis is used by an estimated 192 million people around the world. Most people use cannabis through the inhalation of cannabis smoke, which contains combustion by-products that can negatively affect lung health. Knowledge of these risks has led to a growing interest in cannabis vaporizers, which heat the dry cannabis flower without burning. Vaporizing cannabis still releases cannabinoids for inhalation but heats the plant material at a lower temperature. There is currently no standardized in vitro model for assessing the effects of dry cannabis vapor. Therefore, we established a model for the exposure of lung cell cultures at an air-liquid interface (ALI), whereby cells are apically exposed to vaporized cannabis, thereby more accurately simulating lung epithelial cell physiology. This protocol ensures consistent and reproducible delivery of cannabis vapor to the cell surface, providing a reliable platform for investigating the cellular and molecular impacts of vaporized cannabis. This work is the first to standardize an in vitro cannabis vapor delivery method, which can serve as a benchmark for future preclinical cannabis research.