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Nanoscale Insight into the Living Cell Membrane Responses to Ultrafine PM (Orr LDRD-EBI, PNNL Scope #49989)


EMSL Project ID
17690

Abstract

Ultrafine particulate air pollutants exert harmful effects on human health to a greater extent than other fine particulate matter (PM), and these effects have been linked to the surface properties of nanomaterial. However, the specific chemical and physical parameters that facilitate ultrafine PM interaction with lung macrophage and epithelial cells and elicit inflammatory and toxic responses have not been fully characterized. Using video-rate fluorescence imaging with single-molecule sensitivity, the processes underlying the attachment and internalization of individual or few ultrafine PM (≤ 100 nm) will be investigated. This approach is more likely to avoid the experimentally-induced agglomeration of ultrafine PM, and to identify the processes that occur in vivo. To identify the involvement of specific membrane receptors and their ligands in these events, fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) will be used to detect molecular interactions between the receptors and ligand-coated nanoparticles. Identifying the properties that elicit ultrafine PM inflammatory response and toxicity, and understanding their effects on the interaction of the particles with the macrophage and lung epithelial cells will enable the formulation of new preventative approaches and exposure guidelines.

Project Details

Project type
Exploratory Research
Start Date
2006-01-19
End Date
2007-07-03
Status
Closed

Team

Principal Investigator

Galya Orr
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Team Members

Jaclyn Phillips
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Justin Teeguarden
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Joel Pounds
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

David Panther
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Barbara Tarasevich
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory