Martina Štampar, PhD, gave an oral presentation entitled “Hepatic 3D Cell Model – A Sensitive Approach for Determining the Adverse (Geno)toxic Activity of Air Pollutants.” She summarized research work on benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P), which is the main representative of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as well as a ubiquitous environmental pollutant found in air, surface water, soil, and sediments. It is considered one of the most serious human health problems, associated with numerous diseases, including asthma and cancer in various target organs such as the liver and lungs. In the presented work, the adverse (geno)toxic effects of an environmental pollutant were studied in advanced hepatic in vitro 3D cell models established at NIB. In the presentation, Martina showed that the hepatic 3D cell model combined with flow cytometry measurements is a sensitive approach that can be used for the assessment of genotoxic activity of air pollutants. The research was done within the CutCancer project.

At the conference, a poster entitled “Genotoxicity of two polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, benzo[b]fluoranthene and benzo[ghi]perylene,” presented the results of the CutCancer project (see page 78; http://huzz.hr/Zbornik/Zbornik_sazetaka_za_web.pdf). Mentioned poster presenter Matjaž Novak, PhD, has been awarded the first prize at the “Air Protection 2023” conference.