Fractionation, chemical and toxicological characterization of tobacco smoke components

Tobacco smoke is an extremely complex aerosol composed of thousands of constituents distributed amongst the particulate and vapor phases. Toxicological effects have been linked to compounds present in both of these phases. Many biologically active compounds have been identified within tobacco smoke; however, there is a lack of studies correlating specific in vitro or in vivo biological responses to components within whole tobacco smoke. The goal of this research was to develop reliable and robust smoke fractionation methods using analytical separation and detection techniques in combination with in vitro toxicological assays.  In a previous study by our collaborators, toxicological assessment of the particulate phase combustion products of twelve individual tobacco components revealed that the combustion products of chlorogenic acid were the most cytotoxic using the in vitro micronucleus test. Therefore, a preparative liquid chromatography method was developed in this work to fractionate the combustion products of chlorogenic acid to assess the bioactivity of these fractions and to identify the compounds responsible for the toxicity observed. The sub-fraction responsible for the most cytotoxic response comprised catechol, which was identified by liquid chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry.  Emerging studies have highlighted the toxicological significance of whole tobacco smoke and specifically the vapor phase, which shifted our focus to whole smoke analyses. The Borgwaldt RM20S® smoking machine in combination with British American Tobacco’s in vitro cell exposure chamber allow for the generation of fresh cigarette smoke in various doses and delivery to cell cultures. In vitro biological assays have a high degree of variability, thus, all other sources of variability must be accounted for to accurately assess toxicological endpoints; however, the reliability of dose delivery of the instrument had not been assessed until now. We have determined the reliability (RSD from 0.7-12%) of smoke generation and dilution by quantifying two reference standard gases (CH4 by flame ionization detection and CO by infrared absorption) and the tobacco particulate phase marker, solanesol (by high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet absorption detection).  The relationship between dose and diluted vapor phase components found within the exposure chamber was then characterized by developing a headspace stir-bar sorptive extraction-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry method. The method repeatability gave an RSD from 10-13% for five reference compounds identified in the vapor phase of cigarette smoke. The maximal peak area response was obtained using the following experimental conditions: exposure-to-desorption time interval of 10  0.5 min, desorption temperature of 200 °C for 2 min, and a cryofocussing temperature of -75 °C. The dilution precision was found to yield a linear response of analyte abundance and was observed to be a function of concentration (RSD from 6.2-17.2 %) with quantities of 6-450 ng for the reference compounds. The findings obtained suggest the Borgwaldt RM20S® is a reliable tool to generate and deliver repeatable and linear doses of cigarette smoke to in vitro cell cultures.  Our approach began with designing the methodology to work with an individual tobacco component, which could then be applied to a more complex sample, e.g., the vapor phase of cigarette smoke. The methodology developed can potentially serve as standardized methods for the assessment of instrumentation or screening of products for the Tobacco Industry.

Keyphrases: Borgwaldt RM-20S® smoking machine, Chlorogenic acid, Exposure chamber, Fractionation, Gas chromatography, Headspace stir-bar sorptive extraction, In vitro micronucleus test, Liquid chromatography, Mass spectrometry, Whole cigarette smoke