Cytotoxicity of Quartz and Montomrillointe in Human Lung Epthlial Cell

In this study A549 cell viability, extracellular activities of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)–α and interleukin (IL)-6 levels were investgated after incubation with quartz (KWC-Q4 and KWC-Q3), Nano-SiO2, and KWC-M, the micronucleaus test and comet assay was carried out to evaluate the genotoxicity. The results showed that, there were significant difference in the cell death rate and extracellular LDH activity compared with the control group, and appeared a good linear relationship in certain concentration range. All mineral particle tested can induce the increase of TNF-α after incubation with mineral powders at 200 μg/mL for 3h merely, and significant increase of IL-6 for 24h, the results indicated the inflammatory reaction can be triggered by the exposure of KWC-Q4, KWC-Q3, Nano-SiO2, and KWC-M. The micronucleus test result showed the MNF (Micronucleus frequency) listed as Nano-SiO2>KWC-Q3>KWC-Q4. There is no significant increase of KWC-M compared with the control group, maybe resulted from its high cell death rate at low concentration. The comet assay confirmed the genotoxicity of all samples tested, the DNA damage: KWC-M > Nano-SiO2 > KWC-Q4 > KWC-Q3.