2025 Volume 60 Issue 5 Pages 67-75
The present study examined the effects of ammonium sulfate and ammonium hydrogen sulfate on human adenocarcinoma-derived alveolar basal epithelial A549 cells and human adenocarcinoma-derived lung epithelial Calu-3 cells at an air-liquid interface. The exposure concentrations were 1, 10 or 100 mg/m3 for the L, M or H group and the control group. The experiments involving the A549 cells showed that ammonium sulfate enhanced the oxidative stress markers, heme oxygenase-1 and glutathione (GSH) approximately 2-fold compared to the in control group. The experiments using Calu-3 cells showed that ammonium sulfate attenuated the inflammation marker, IL-8, in the L group and enhanced it in the M group, enhanced IL-6 in the M group and attenuated it in the H group, and enhanced GSH in the H group. Ammonium hydrogen sulfate had no effect on the A549 and Calu-3 cells. Although the possibility of inflammation was suggested in an ammonium sulfate exposure experiment, the concentration of the H group was 50,000 times higher than the average atmospheric concentration of ammonium sulfate in Tokyo. These results suggest that the effects on cultured cells at atmospheric concentration levels of ammonium sulfate and ammonium hydrogen sulfate are extremely weak.
