Lung cell responses to ship diesel exhaust particles

Human BEAS-2B bronchial epithelial cells were exposed directly at the air-liquid interphase towards exhaust gas and particles of a ship engine. The goal was to compare the responses towards different fuel combustions. The engine run either on diesel fuel (DF) or on Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO). The lung cells were exposed 3 times to each combustion aerosol (DF or HFO). The duration of the exposure was 4h. The cells were seeded into transwell-inserts 24h before exposure. Within each exposure 3 transwell-inserts were exposed to the complete aerosol and 3 transwell-inserts were exposed to the filtered aerosol. Effects of the complete aerosol were referenced against the filtered aerosol to determine the effects of the aerosol particles.