Lung cell responses to wood combustion aerosols. Homo sapiens

Human A549 lung epithelial cells were exposed directly at the air-liquid interphase towards combustion aerosols of wood burning. The goal was to compare the responses towards different wood and burning conditions. Beech log woods were burnt in a modern masonry heater, soft wood pellets were burnt in a pellet boiler. Overall design: The lung cells were exposed 3 times to each combustion aerosol (beech or pellet). 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 clean air. Effects in the aerosol-treated cells were referenced against the corresponding clean air controls (from the same day).