| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,400,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 2001: ¥1,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000)
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| Research Abstract |
To investigate the interaction of suspended particulate matter (PM) in the air and respiratory health, we designed to examine cell injury of PM in vitro, using primary culture of alveolar type II cells. PM was collected using MiniVol sampler at the intersection which traffic is most heavy in Kochi city from AM 7:00 to PM 7:00 everyday for a week except Saturday and Sunday. PM was fractionated size-dependently into 3 fractions to compare the ability of inhalable particles of which the diameter is below 1 μm (PM1), from 1 to 2 μm (PM2) and above 2 μm (PM10). The average of concentrations of PM each month was 18.3±5.4mg/m^3 air for PM1, 6.1±1.9 mg/m^3 air for PM2 and 17.8±5.7mg/m^3 air for PM10. It was found by the observations of scanning electron microscopy that the form of PM1 was mosaic and spherical particles, the size was in 1 μm or thereabout, the particles did not aggregate and existed separately. While size of PM10 was irregular and various and the shape of the face was smooth and/or rough and these particles bounded and formed large aggregation. Cytotoxicity of alveolar type II cells exposed to each fraction of PM was 30.1±4.3% for control, 48.9±2.4% for PM1, 78.9±7.6 for PM2 and 105.2±4.0 for PM10, PM injured alveolar epithelial cells and the injury action of PM increased depend on particles diameter. In addition, it was found that injury components of PM exist in water soluble fraction.
As PM contains several heavy metals, we also examined cytotoxicity of the heavy metals on primary cultured alveolar type II cells. The results attach to this report as a reprint of Environmental Research 89, 138-145, 2002.
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