Because so many different smoking machine and exposure systems are used, it is clear there needs to be a simple and aligned method of measuring dose in vitro; this is especially the case with the current switch from liquid to ALI exposures of aerosols in vitro [ 16].
Generally these exposure systems comprise of a smoking machine which dilutes and delivers mainstream cigarette smoke to an exposure chamber which can contain different cell cultures, usually supported at the air-liquid interface (ALI).
But with the diversity of available machines and exposure chambers comes a caveat: how to interpret the biological data generated from various exposure systems?
Absolute values between the two exposure systems were clearly different but the relationship between products for deposited mass and nicotine was mostly similar and consistent across dilutions and between machines (Tables 4, 5, ratio values).
Data from both exposure systems were combined.
We have previously characterised an in vitro exposure system using a Borgwaldt RM20S smoking machine and a chamber exposing cellular cultures to whole smoke at the air-liquid interface.
Results from this study have given us further confidence that the current whole smoke exposure system, using the Borgwaldt RM20S smoking machine and the BAT exposure chamber, is a reliable, repeatable, robust and potentially a more physiologically relevant method of generating and exposing in vitro cellular and tissue cultures to whole cigarette smoke at the ALI.
In conclusion, we present a reliable and repeatable whole smoke exposure system consisting of a Borgwaldt RM20S smoking machine and BAT's exposure chamber.
An in vitro aerosol exposure system supports such an approach, where a machine system will generate, dilute and deliver aerosols from cigarettes or e-cigarettes (or other nicotine delivery devices) to cell cultures at the air liquid interface (ALI) in a chamber or a module, mimicking a physiological aerosol exposure.
irrespective of exposure system, the delivered mass/nicotine relationship is similar for each product; there is no difference between machines (p = 0.105).
