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Inhalation Toxicology
International Forum for Respiratory Research
Volume 30, 2018 - Issue 1
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Research Article

Detailed deposition analysis of inertial and diffusive particles in a rat nasal passage

ORCID Icon, , ORCID Icon, & ORCID Icon
Pages 29-39 | Received 31 May 2017, Accepted 31 Aug 2017, Published online: 28 Feb 2018
 

Abstract

Rats have been widely used as surrogates for evaluating the health effects of inhaled airborne particulate matter. To provide a thorough understanding of particle transport and deposition mechanisms in the rat nasal airway, this article presents a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study of particle exposure in a realistic rat nasal passage under a resting flow condition. Particles covering a diameter range from 1 nm to 4 µm were passively released in front of the rat’s breathing zone, and the Lagrangian particle tracking approach was used to calculate individual particle trajectories. Detailed particle deposition analysis shows the deposition of inertial particles >2 µm is high in the rat nasal vestibule and more than 70% of all inhaled inertial particles were trapped in this region. While for diffusive nanoparticles, the vestibule filtration effect is reduced, only less than 60% of inhaled nanoparticles were blocked by the anterior nasal structures. The particle exposure in the olfactory region only shows notable deposition for diffusive nanoparticles, which peaks at 9.4% for 5 nm particles. Despite the olfactory deposition remains at a low level, the ratio between the olfactory and the main passage is kept around 30–40% for 10–800 nm particles, which indicates a particle-size-independent distribution pattern in the main nasal passage and olfactory. This study provides a deep understanding of particles deposition features in a rat nasal passage, and the research findings can aid toxicologist in inter-species exposure-response extrapolation study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No.: 91643102] and Australian Research Council [Project ID: DP160101953].

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