Comparison of lung damage in mice exposed to black carbon particles and ozone-oxidized black carbon particles Hongqian Chu a,b , Jing Shang d , Ming Jin a,b , Qian Li d,e , Yueyue Chen d , Hongpeng Huang a,b , Yuan Li a,b , Yao Pan a,b , Xi Tao a,b , Zhiyuan Cheng a,b , Qinghe Meng a,b , Guang Jia c , Tong Zhu d , Xuetao Wei a,b, ⁎ ,1 , Weidong Hao a,b, ⁎ ,1 a Department of Toxicology, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100191, PR China b Beijing Key Laboratory of Toxicological Research and Risk Assessment for Food Safety, Beijing 100191, PR China c Department of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100191, PR China d State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, PR China e POTEN Environment Group Co., Ltd., Beijing 100082, PR China HIGHLIGHTS • oBC can enhance the cytokines secre- tion in BALF than that of BC. • oBC can enhance cytokine mRNA ex- pression in lung tissue than that of BC. • BC and oBC affected the T cell sub-types in mediastinal lymph nodes. • PI3K/AKT signal pathway plays a role in oBC caused lung injury. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT abstract article info Article history: Received 11 July 2016 Received in revised form 18 August 2016 Accepted 19 August 2016 Available online xxxx Editor: D. Barcelo Black carbon (BC) is a key component of atmospheric particles and has a significant effect on human health. Ox- idation could change the characteristics of BC and increase its toxicity. The comparison of lung damage in mice exposed to BC and ozone-oxidized BC (oBC) particles is investigated in this study. Mice which were intratracheally instilled with particles have a higher expression of IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-33 in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). Also, the IL-6, IL-33 mRNA expression in the lung tissue of mice instilled with oBC was higher than that of mice instilled with BC. The expression of CD3 in the lung tissue of mice intratracheally instilled with oBC was higher than the mice distilled with BC. The pathology results showed that the lung tissue of mice instilled with oBC particles have much more inflammatory cells infiltration than that of mice treated with BC. It is believed Keywords: Black carbon Science of the Total Environment 573 (2016) 303–312 Abbreviations: BC, black carbon; oBC, ozone-oxidized black carbon; BALF, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid; PM, particulate matter. ⁎ Corresponding authors at: Department of Toxicology, School of Public Health, Beijing 100191, PR China. E-mail addresses: weixt1010@gmail.com (X. Wei), whao@bjmu.edu.cn (W. Hao). 1 These authors contributed equally to this work. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.08.137 0048-9697/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Science of the Total Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv