Dose Dependent Effect of Iso-Octane on HaCaT: A Model Study

OBJECTIVE: Improved understanding of cytotoxicity under chemical assaults may be achieved by multimodal analysis of cellular morphology, viability, molecular expressions, and biophysical properties. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study dose-dependent effects of an organic solvent (OS), iso-octane (IO), known to cause skin irritation, has been explored multimodally for understanding its effect on structural and functional profile of normal epithelial cell population in vitro. RESULTS: Under IO exposures, after 5 h there was a sharp decrease in viability of HaCaT with increasing doses which may be due to disruption in cellular association noted via immunocytochemical study and was further supported by the decreased expression of E-cadherin at transcriptomic level. Dislocation of E-cadherin from membrane to the cytoplasm occurred with increasing doses. The dose-dependent changes in varied aspects of bioelectrical properties, having plausible correlation with cellular viability, association, and adherence were noteworthy at 5 h of IO exposure. Evaluation of biomechanical properties by micropipette aspiration showed a distinct change in cellular stiffness in terms of increase in suction force and post-suction alteration in cellular shape. The cells became stiffer and fragile with increasing IO doses. CONCLUSION: Present study explicated dose–dependent cytotoxicity of IO on HaCaT and explored the usefulness of this approach to develop in vitro model system to evaluate epithelial toxicity with level-free markers.