Cargando…
Effect of aerosol particles generated by ultrasonic humidifiers on the lung in mouse
BACKGROUND: Ultrasonic humidifiers silently generate water droplets as a cool fog and produce most of the dissolved minerals in the fog in the form of an aerosolized “white dust.” However, the health effect of these airborne particles is largely unknown. This study aimed to characterize the aerosol...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2013
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3922954/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24359587 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1743-8977-10-64 |
_version_ | 1782303537744576512 |
---|---|
author | Umezawa, Masakazu Sekita, Keisuke Suzuki, Ken-ichiro Kubo-Irie, Miyoko Niki, Rikio Ihara, Tomomi Sugamata, Masao Takeda, Ken |
author_facet | Umezawa, Masakazu Sekita, Keisuke Suzuki, Ken-ichiro Kubo-Irie, Miyoko Niki, Rikio Ihara, Tomomi Sugamata, Masao Takeda, Ken |
author_sort | Umezawa, Masakazu |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Ultrasonic humidifiers silently generate water droplets as a cool fog and produce most of the dissolved minerals in the fog in the form of an aerosolized “white dust.” However, the health effect of these airborne particles is largely unknown. This study aimed to characterize the aerosol particles generated by ultrasonic humidifiers and to investigate their effect on the lung tissue of mice. METHODS: An ultrasonic humidifier was operated with tap water, high-silica water, ultrapure water, or other water types. In a chamber (0.765 m(3), ventilation ratio 11.5 m(3)/hr), male ICR mice (10-week-old) were exposed by inhalation to an aerosol-containing vapor generated by the humidifier. After exposure for 7 or 14 days, lung tissues and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were collected from each mouse and examined by microarray, quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and light and electron microscopy. RESULTS: Particles generated from the humidifier operated with tap water had a mass concentration of 0.46 ± 0.03 mg/m(3), number concentration of (5.0 ± 1.1) × 10(4)/cm(3), and peak size distribution of 183 nm. The particles were phagocytosed by alveolar macrophages in the lung of mice. Inhalation of particles caused dysregulation of genes related to mitosis, cell adhesion molecules, MHC molecules and endocytosis, but did not induce any signs of inflammation or tissue injury in the lung. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that aerosol particles released from ultrasonic humidifiers operated with tap water initiated a cellular response but did not cause severe acute inflammation in pulmonary tissue. Additionally, high mineral content tap water is not recommended and de-mineralized water should be recommended in order to exclude any adverse effects. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3922954 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-39229542014-02-14 Effect of aerosol particles generated by ultrasonic humidifiers on the lung in mouse Umezawa, Masakazu Sekita, Keisuke Suzuki, Ken-ichiro Kubo-Irie, Miyoko Niki, Rikio Ihara, Tomomi Sugamata, Masao Takeda, Ken Part Fibre Toxicol Research BACKGROUND: Ultrasonic humidifiers silently generate water droplets as a cool fog and produce most of the dissolved minerals in the fog in the form of an aerosolized “white dust.” However, the health effect of these airborne particles is largely unknown. This study aimed to characterize the aerosol particles generated by ultrasonic humidifiers and to investigate their effect on the lung tissue of mice. METHODS: An ultrasonic humidifier was operated with tap water, high-silica water, ultrapure water, or other water types. In a chamber (0.765 m(3), ventilation ratio 11.5 m(3)/hr), male ICR mice (10-week-old) were exposed by inhalation to an aerosol-containing vapor generated by the humidifier. After exposure for 7 or 14 days, lung tissues and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were collected from each mouse and examined by microarray, quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and light and electron microscopy. RESULTS: Particles generated from the humidifier operated with tap water had a mass concentration of 0.46 ± 0.03 mg/m(3), number concentration of (5.0 ± 1.1) × 10(4)/cm(3), and peak size distribution of 183 nm. The particles were phagocytosed by alveolar macrophages in the lung of mice. Inhalation of particles caused dysregulation of genes related to mitosis, cell adhesion molecules, MHC molecules and endocytosis, but did not induce any signs of inflammation or tissue injury in the lung. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that aerosol particles released from ultrasonic humidifiers operated with tap water initiated a cellular response but did not cause severe acute inflammation in pulmonary tissue. Additionally, high mineral content tap water is not recommended and de-mineralized water should be recommended in order to exclude any adverse effects. BioMed Central 2013-12-21 /pmc/articles/PMC3922954/ /pubmed/24359587 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1743-8977-10-64 Text en Copyright © 2013 Umezawa et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Umezawa, Masakazu Sekita, Keisuke Suzuki, Ken-ichiro Kubo-Irie, Miyoko Niki, Rikio Ihara, Tomomi Sugamata, Masao Takeda, Ken Effect of aerosol particles generated by ultrasonic humidifiers on the lung in mouse |
title | Effect of aerosol particles generated by ultrasonic humidifiers on the lung in mouse |
title_full | Effect of aerosol particles generated by ultrasonic humidifiers on the lung in mouse |
title_fullStr | Effect of aerosol particles generated by ultrasonic humidifiers on the lung in mouse |
title_full_unstemmed | Effect of aerosol particles generated by ultrasonic humidifiers on the lung in mouse |
title_short | Effect of aerosol particles generated by ultrasonic humidifiers on the lung in mouse |
title_sort | effect of aerosol particles generated by ultrasonic humidifiers on the lung in mouse |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3922954/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24359587 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1743-8977-10-64 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT umezawamasakazu effectofaerosolparticlesgeneratedbyultrasonichumidifiersonthelunginmouse AT sekitakeisuke effectofaerosolparticlesgeneratedbyultrasonichumidifiersonthelunginmouse AT suzukikenichiro effectofaerosolparticlesgeneratedbyultrasonichumidifiersonthelunginmouse AT kuboiriemiyoko effectofaerosolparticlesgeneratedbyultrasonichumidifiersonthelunginmouse AT nikirikio effectofaerosolparticlesgeneratedbyultrasonichumidifiersonthelunginmouse AT iharatomomi effectofaerosolparticlesgeneratedbyultrasonichumidifiersonthelunginmouse AT sugamatamasao effectofaerosolparticlesgeneratedbyultrasonichumidifiersonthelunginmouse AT takedaken effectofaerosolparticlesgeneratedbyultrasonichumidifiersonthelunginmouse |