Organic dust contains pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) which can induce significant airway diseases following chronic exposure. Mononuclear phagocytes are key protecting cells of the respiratory tract. Several studies have investigated the effects of PAMPs and mainly endotoxins, on cytokine production. However the sublethal cytotoxicity of organic dust components on macrophages has not been tested yet. The novel technology of high content analysis (HCA) is already used to assess subclinical drug-induced toxicity. It combines the capabilities of flow cytometry, intracellular fluorescence probes, and image analysis and enables rapid multiple analyses in large numbers of samples. In this study, HCA was used to investigate the cytotoxicity of the three major PAMPs contained in organic dust, i.e., endotoxin (LPS), peptidoglycan (PGN) and β-glucans (zymosan) on THP-1 monocyte-derived macrophages. LPS was used at concentrations of 0.005, 0.01, 0.02, 0.05, 0.1, and 1 μg/mL; PGN and zymosan were used at concentrations of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, and 500 μg/mL. Cells were exposed to PAMPs for 24 h. In addition, the oxidative burst and the phagocytic capabilities of the cells were tested. An overlap between PGN intrinsic fluorescence and red/far-red fluorescent dyes occurred, rendering the evaluation of some parameters impossible for PGN. LPS induced sublethal cytotoxicity at the lowest dose (from 50 ng/mL). However, the greatest cytotoxic changes occurred with zymosan. In addition, zymosan, but not LPS, induced phagosome maturation and oxidative burst. Given the fact that β-glucans can be up to 100-fold more concentrated in organic dust than LPS, these results suggest that β-glucans could play a major role in macrophage impairment following heavy dust exposure and will merit further investigation in the near future.
Keywords: LPS; high content analysis; organic dust; peptidoglycan; toxicity; zymosan.
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