Portable in vitro multi-well chamber for exposing airborne nanomaterials at the air-liquid interface using electrostatic deposition

摘要

A single- or multi-well chamber assembly comprising nanoparticle exposure chambers with a plurality of wells designed to hold porous membrane inserts, with cell culture media being maintained on the basal (lower) surface to generate the air-liquid interface. The wells may accommodate a variety of sizes of cell culture inserts and may be arranged radially. The chamber assembly comprises an integrated heating-humidifying mechanism so that the internal chamber environment may be heated to 37° C. and maintained at humid conditions to allow for maintenance of cell cultures. The presently disclosed apparatus may be used to investigate the toxicity of airborne nanoparticles to cells or tissue models grown at the air-liquid interface. Aerosolized nanomaterials are drawn into a multi-well chamber assembly and deposited via electrostatic deposition onto cells grown at the air-liquid interface.