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CORESTA Meeting, Smoke Science/Product Technology, Freiburg, 2003, ST 12

In vitro cytotoxicity of cigarette mainstream smoke with a whole smoke exposure system

EGUCHI K.; FUKANO Y.; SUZUKI M.; SHIBAGAKI M.
Japan Tobacco Inc., Tobacco Science Research Lab., Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.

We reported previously the development of a whole smoke exposure system to assess the biological effects of cigarette mainstream smoke. The exposure system design was based on a combination of the sedimentation procedure and the CULTEXTM cultivation technique, which exposes the cells to fresh smoke at every puff. A clear dose response relationship between cell viability and total exposure was observed. Furthermore, the system was able to observe the effects of both the particulate phase and the vapor phase. In this study, the cytotoxic effects of several types of cigarettes, using the whole smoke exposure system, were observed by neutral red uptake and WST-1 assays using an A549 human lung epithelial cell line, and compared by median inhibitory concentration 50(IC50). Cigarettes with acetate filter containing various amount of charcoal were investigated, and the correlation between the amount of charcoal and IC50 was observed. The level of ventilation also showed the change in cytotoxicities in comparison with non-ventilated cigarettes. Whole smoke from some tobacco types was also examined, and the differences of in vitro cytotoxicities between them were detected. One of the advantages of the whole smoke exposure system is that the influence of both particulate and vapor phase in cigarette smoke can be detected at the same time, which could not be evaluated by the conventional methods with cigarette smoke condensate. In conclusion, the exposure system is a useful method to assess the biological activity in cigarette smoke.