The effect of PhIP precursors on the generation of particulate matter in cooking oil fumes at high cooking temperatures and the inflammation response in human lung cells

Cooking Oil Fumes (COFs) contain carcinogenic organic substances such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heterocyclic amines (HCAs), of which 2-Amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo(4,5-b)pyridine (PhIP) is known as mainly meat-borne carcinogens. In this work, to identify the mechanisms to induce the inflammation response in human lung cells (A549) exposed to COFs, we investigated the physicochemical and biological characteristics of COFs generated with PhIP precursors (L-phenylalanine, creatinine, and glucose) at high cooking temperatures (300 °C and 600 °C). Interestingly, we found that PhIP was not formed both at 300 °C and 600 °C, while a large number of carbon nanoparticles were generated from soybean oil containing the PhIP precursors at 600 °C. From the biological analysis, COFs generated with the PhIP precursors at 600 °C induced the most significant pro-inflammatory cytokine (IL-6). This result indicates that the particulate matter in COFs generated with the PhIP precursors above the smoke temperature is the primary factor directly affecting the lung inflammatory response rather than PhIP. This study demonstrates for the first time a novel principle of the inflammatory response that the PhIP precursors can aggravate lung injury by affecting the physical properties of COFs depending on cooking temperature. Therefore, our finding is a significant result of overcoming the bias in previous studies focusing only on the chemical toxicity of PhIP in the inflammatory response of COFs.