Cytotoxicity properties of PM2.5 collected in Wrocław agglomeration

Faculty of Environmental Engineering, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Wybrzeże S. Wyspiańskiego 27, 50-370 Wrocław, Poland

^* Corresponding author: maciej.belcik@pwr.edu.pl

Abstract

WHO report published in May 2016 presents the cities with the highest concentrations of particulate matter fraction 10 μm and 2.5 μm on the earth. Report presents that many of Polish cities are on the top of polluted regions in European Union. One of the cities mentioned in the report is Wrocław. Wrocław is the urban and industrial agglomeration, where air pollutions comes from three main sources: low-emissions, industrial emissions and urban traffic. In recent years, reduction in annual average concentrations of particulate matter has been observed. However Wrocław is still one of the cities in Poland, which have problems with smog situations during winter season. This article presents results of researches conducted on the particulate matter fraction 2.5 μm collected in Wrocław agglomeration. Pollutions have been tested using PAN-I assay kit, which contains 4 single toxicity tests allows to check different parameters defining toxic effects on human cells. Cytotoxicity tests which are conducted are: LDH test to evaluate the integrity of cell membrane, XTT test to assess mitochondrial activity, NR test for the evaluation of the lysosomal activity and SRB test to evaluate the total protein content. Tests were performed on adenocarcinomic human alveolar basal epithelial cell line (A549), which allows to simulate conditions as close as real.