Réponse toxicologique d’une culture organotypique de tissu pulmonaire exposée à des gaz d’échappement issus d’un moteur à combustion

The study of combustion engine exhaust presents several problems, including sampling and the exposure procedure. Most studies have been conducted on diesel engine emissions, with particles collected in advance and placed in suspension in a liquid before in vivo or in vitro exposure. It is also important, however, to study gasoline engine emissions, which contain not only gaseous pollutants (CO, VOCs, and NOx) but also very small particles (30-50 nm) with high pulmonary penetration capacity. The aim of this work was to study the toxicity of the emissions of a gasoline engine and assess the impact of a pollution reduction system. A direct exposure system made it possible to expose organotypic cultures of rat lung slices to continuous exhaust flows at the engine outlet. Biological markers of the lung tissue reaction to the air contaminants were measured. Results showed that gasoline exhaust was associated with alterations in the metabolism of glutathione and energy, with decreased levels of ATP, GSH, GPx and GRED. Treatment of these emissions by a 3-way catalyst eliminated the noxious effects to pulmonary tissue that were observed without it and showed the effectiveness of this depollution system on the variables studied.