In vitro evaluation of the toxicological effects of cooking oil fumes using a self-designed microfluidic chip

Abstract

Cooking oil fumes (COFs) are widely acknowledged as substantial contributors to indoor air pollution, having detrimental effects on human health. Despite the existence of commercialized in vitro aerosol exposure platforms, assessment risks of aerosol pollutants are primarily evaluated based on multiwell plate experiments by trapping and redissolving aerosols to conduct comprehensive in vitro immersion exposure manner. Therefore, an innovative real-time exposure system for COF aerosol was constructed, featuring a self-designed microfluidic chip as its focal component. The chip was used to assess toxicological effects of in vitro exposure to COF aerosol on cells cultured at the gas–liquid interface. Meanwhile, we used transcriptomics to analyze genes that exhibited differential expression in cells induced by COF aerosol. The findings indicated that the MAPK signaling pathway, known for its involvement in inflammatory response and oxidative stress, played a crucial role in the biological effects induced by COF aerosol. Biomarkers associated with inflammatory response and oxidative stress exhibited corresponding alterations. Furthermore, the concentration of COF aerosol exposure and post-exposure duration exert decisive effects on these biomarkers. Thus, the study suggests that COF can induce oxidative stress and inflammatory response in BEAS-2B cells, potentially exerting a discernible impact on human health.

Keywords:

• Cooking oil fumes
• microfluidic chip
• transcriptomics
• toxicology
• in vitro

Author contributions

Boyang Feng: formal analysis, investigation, methodology, software, writing – original draft. Xiang Li: conceptualization, funding acquisition, investigation, project administration, writing – review and editing. Zezhi Li: formal analysis, investigation, methodology, software. Junwei Zhao: formal analysis, software. Kejian Liu: resources. Fuwei Xie: project administration. Xiaobing Zhang: conceptualization, project administration.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data will be made available on request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Key Technologies R&D Program of Henan Province, China (No. 222102310249), the Project from China National Tobacco Corporation (No. 110202102015), and the Scientific Research Program of Innovation Platform in State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (No. 312021AW0420).