Skip to main content
Fig. 1 | Particle and Fibre Toxicology

Fig. 1

From: Chronic pulmonary exposure to traffic-related fine particulate matter causes brain impairment in adult rats

Fig. 1

Overview of the experimental design for investigating the effects of particulate air pollution on the rat brain in vivo. a Illustration of the exposure systems and conditions of traffic-related air pollution by whole-body exposure in 6-month-old SD rats. Rats were randomly divided into three exposure conditions, including a clean air control group (n = 18) in the Laboratory Animal Center, a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA)-filtered air control group (n = 18), and a particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of < 1 μm (PM1) group (n = 18). b Ambient air was sampled by an omnidirectional PM inlet located on the roof of a station and then introduced into whole-body exposure system. Particle physical characteristics were determined using a tapered element oscillating microbalance (TEOM), a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS), an aerodynamic particle sizer (APS), a nanoparticle surface area monitor (NSAM) and an sethalometer (AE). c Rats in each groups were randomly selected for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) analysis (n = 9), electroencephalography (EEG) implementation and monitoring (n = 3), novel object recognition (NOR) task (n = 6), and rotarod performance (n = 6) after 3 and 6 months of exposure to traffic-related air pollution

Back to article page