Table 3.
Important methodological issues of the experiments. For details see Geiser et al. [18].
| Animals | |
| Species | Adult male WKY/NCrl BR rats |
| Number | n = 5 for each group |
| Particles | |
| Material | Titanium dioxide |
| Aerosol generation | Spark generator (Palas) in a pure argon plus 0.1% oxygen stream |
| Count median diameter (nm) | 22 (SD 1.7) |
| Exposure | Inhalation of aerosol for 1 h |
| Fixation and tissue processing | |
| Time point of fixation | 1 h or 24 h after particle exposure |
| Fixation mode | Subsequent perfusion fixation with 2.5% buffered glutaraldehyde, 1% osmium tetroxide, 0.5% uranyl acetate |
| Tissue sampling | Systematic uniform random sampling |
| Material for light and electron microscopy | Semithin (toluidine staining) and ultrathin (uranyl acetate and lead citrate staining) sections |