Assessment of cigarette smoke particle deposition within the Vitrocell® exposure module using quartz crystal microbalances

摘要

BackgroundCigarette smoking is a cause of a variety of serious diseases, and to understand the toxicological impact of tobacco smoke in vitro, whole smoke exposure systems can be used. One of the main challenges of the different whole smoke exposure systems that are commercially available is that they dilute and deliver smoke in different ways, limiting/restricting the cross-comparison of biological responses. This is where dosimetry – dose quantification – can play a key role in data comparison. Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) technology has been put forward as one such tool to quantify smoke particle deposition in vitro, in real-time.