Road traffic is one of the main sources of particulate emissions into the environment and has an increasing, negative impact on the release of potentially dangerous materials. Vehicle brakes release a significant amount of wear particles, and knowledge regarding their possible adverse effects is limited. One of the most dangerous elements contained in brake pads is copper (Cu), known to be toxic for human health. Therefore, our aim was to study the cell toxicity of particulate matter (PM) produced by different combinations of braking discs and pads containing different amounts of Cu. We investigated whether brake-derived microparticles have toxic effects on lung cells proportionally to their Cu content. Analyte content was measured in friction materials by XRFS and in PM2.5 captured during braking tests using SEM/EDX. The biological impact of brake-derived PM2.5 was investigated on a human epithelial alveolar cell line (A549). Cell viability, oxidative stress, mitochondrial membrane potential, apoptosis, and the pro-inflammatory response of the cells, as well as gene expression, were assessed following exposure to increasing PM2.5 concentrations (1, 10, 100, 200, and 500 µg/ml). The brake debris with the lowest Cu content did not induce significant changes in biological effects on A549 cells compared to normal controls, except for ROS production and IL6 gene expression. PM2.5 containing higher Cu quantities induced cell toxicity that correlated with Cu concentration. Our data suggest that the toxicity of PM2.5 from the brake system is mainly related to Cu content, thus confirming that eliminating Cu from brake pads will be beneficial for human health in urbanized environments.

道路交通是排放到环境中的颗粒物的主要来源之一，并且对释放潜在危险物质具有越来越大的负面影响。车辆制动器释放出大量的磨损颗粒，并且关于其可能的不利影响的知识是有限的。刹车片中最危险的元素之一是铜（Cu），已知对人体健康有毒。因此，我们的目的是研究制动盘和含不同量铜的制动垫的不同组合产生的颗粒物（PM）的细胞毒性。我们研究了刹车衍生的微粒是否对肺细胞具有与其铜含量成比例的毒性作用。使用XRFS测量摩擦材料中的分析物含量，并使用SEM / EDX在制动测试过程中捕获的PM2.5中测量分析物含量。研究了刹车来源的PM2.5对人上皮肺泡细胞系（A549）的生物学影响。在暴露于增加的PM2.5浓度（1、10、100、200和500 µg）后，评估了细胞活力，氧化应激，线粒体膜电位，细胞凋亡，促炎反应以及基因表达。 / ml）。铜含量最低的刹车碎片与正常对照组相比，对A549细胞的生物学影响没有明显变化，除了产生ROS和IL6基因表达。含较高量铜的PM2.5诱导细胞毒性，其与铜浓度相关。我们的数据表明，制动系统中PM2.5的毒性主要与Cu含量有关，