The use of the mouse for carcinogenesis bioassays has raised questions regarding the cell of origin of lung tumors. Since a feature of chronic lung injury from aromatic hydrocarbons is an apparent alteration in target cell susceptibility, the present study was designed to test the feasibility of using microdissected pulmonary airways to evaluate the metabolism and cytotoxic response of one of the potential targets of pulmonary carcinogens, the bronchiolar Clara cell. Airways were microdissected from mouse lungs that had been filled by injection of agarose (1%) into the trachea. Ultrastructural integrity of the explants has been maintained for up to 8 h in culture. The cytotoxic response of bronchiolar epithelium in explants incubated with naphthalene (0.5 mM) was identical to the vacuolation and exfoliation observed in bronchioles of mice 24 h after intraperitoneal administration of naphthalene (100 or 300 mg/kg). Pre-incubation of the explants with piperonyl butoxide, a cytochrome P-450 monooxygenase inhibitor, prevented naphthalene-induced cytotoxicity. Naphthalene monooxygenase activity was easily measurable in all levels of airway, including trachea, lobar bronchi, major and minor daughter pathways, and distal bronchioles. No metabolism was detected in lung parenchyma or large vessels. Dihydrodiol and a glutathione adduct derived from 1R, 2S-naphthalene oxide were the sole metabolites detected by HPLC in incubations of airway explants. Formation of a single diastereomeric glutathione conjugate indicated that the metabolic epoxidation of naphthalene was highly stereoselective. Glutathione S-transferase activity was measured in all compartments, with the highest activities in trachea and lowest in distal bronchiole and pulmonary vein. Explants maintained pools of reduced glutathione for up to 4 h in culture. We conclude that microdissected airways have excellent potential for: (1) defining the capability of bronchiolar epithelium to catalyze xenobiotic biotransformation, (2) comparing activity in target and nontarget lung compartments as a means of identifying specific metabolic pathways associated with the cytotoxic response, and (3) use with a variety of species, including nonhuman primates and humans, as a means of providing appropriate data for extrapolation of effects in the intact animal to the human, where bioassay is not possible.

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Microfluidic concentration gradient generators (µ-CGGs) have been utilized to identify optimal drug compositions through antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) for the treatment of antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) infections. Conventional µ-CGGs fabricated via photolithography-based micromachining processes, however, are fundamentally limited to two-dimensional fluidic routing, such that only two distinct antimicrobial drugs can be tested at once. This work addresses this limitation by employing Multijet-3D-printed microchannel networks capable of fluidic routing in three dimensions to generate symmetric multidrug concentration gradients. The three-fluid gradient generation characteristics of the fabricated 3D µ-CGG prototype were quantified through both theoretical simulations and experimental validations. Furthermore, the antimicrobial effects of three highly clinically relevant antibiotic drugs, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, and amikacin, were evaluated via experimental single-antibiotic minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and pairwise and three-way antibiotic combination drug screening (CDS) studies against model antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli bacteria. As such, this 3D µ-CGG platform has great potential to enable expedited combination AST screening for various biomedical and diagnostic applications.

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One of the presumed roles of intracellular glutathione (GSH) is the protection of cells from injury by reactive intermediates produced by the metabolism of xenobiotics. To establish whether GSH depletion is a critical step in the initiation of events that lead to cytotoxicity by P450-activated cytotoxicants, naphthalene, a well-defined Clara cell cytotoxicant, was administered to mice (200 mg/kg) by intraperitoneal injection. Shortly after injection (1, 2, and 3 h), intracellular GSH content was assessed by high performance liquid chromatography or quantitative epifluorescent imaging microscopy and compared with the degree of cytotoxicity as assessed by high resolution histopathology. In highly susceptible airways (distal bronchioles), GSH decreased by 50% in 1 h. Cytoplasmic vacuolization was not visible until 2 h, when GSH had decreased by an additional 50%. By 3 h, cytoplasmic blebbing was extensive. In minimally susceptible airways (lobar and proximal bronchi), GSH depletion varied widely within the population; a small proportion of the cells lost greater than 50% of their GSH by 2 h and a significant percentage of the cells retained most of their GSH throughout the entire 3 h. Cytoplasmic vacuolization was apparent in some of the cells at 2 h but not visible in any cells at 3 h. We conclude that (1) loss of intracellular GSH is an early event that precedes initial signs of cellular damage in Clara cell cytotoxicity; (2) this pattern of loss in relation to early injury is found both in highly susceptible and minimally susceptible airway sites; (3) there is wide cell-to-cell heterogeneity in the response; (4) the heterogeneity in the response profile varies between populations in highly susceptible and minimally susceptible sites; and (5) once the intracellular GSH concentration within the entire cell population drops below a certain threshold, the initial phase of injury becomes irreversible.