An interdisciplinary approach to investigate the impact of cobalt in a human keratinocyte cell line.

Since in nuclear power plants, risks of skin contact contamination by radiocobalt are significant, we focused on the impact of cobalt on a human cutaneous cell line, i.e. HaCaT keratinocytes. The present paper reports an interdisciplinary approach aimed at clarifying the biochemical mechanisms of metabolism and toxicity of cobalt in HaCaT cells. Firstly, a brief overview of the used instrumental techniques is reported. The following parts present description and discussion of results concerning: (i) toxicological studies concerning cobalt impact towards HaCaT cells (ii) structural and speciation fundamental studies of cobalt-bioligand systems, through X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), ab initio and thermodynamic modelling (iii) preliminary results regarding intracellular cobalt speciation in HaCaT cells using size exclusion chromatography/inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (SEC/ICP-AES) and direct in situ analysis by ion beam micropobe analytical techniques.

Comparisons between LIBS and ICP/OES.

In the framework of the development of new techniques, the ability of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to analyse remotely complex aqueous solutions was investigated. The jet configuration with a collimated gas stream was chosen because it appeared to be the most promising method for the LIBS probe, particularly in terms of sensitivity and repeatability. For emission collection, the echelle spectrometer offers a simultaneously recorded wavelength range from the UV to the near IR and is interesting for multielemental analysis for LIBS and also for inductively coupled plasma (ICP) optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The importance of parameters influencing the quantitative results of LIBS such as multispecies analysis, sheath gas, use of an internal standard and temporal parameters for analysis is described. LIBS quantitative data have been directly compared with results from the more standard ICP/OES technique.