Beas-2B cells are a human bronchial epithelial cell line widely used as a cell model in vitro to test or screen different chemicals and biological agents that could cause pulmonary toxicity [26]. Therefore, we utilized this cell line as a model to induce toxicity and observe its therapeutic response in this study. Research has shown that CS can cause oxidative stress, senescence, DNA damage, and various programmed cell death (PCD) forms, including ferroptosis and apoptosis in cell models [9, 13, 27]. This study demonstrated that CSE exhibited short- and long-term cytotoxic effects. In the short-term toxicity evaluation using the MTT test, a decrease in cell viability was observed from 20 µg/ml of CSE. SFN, a potent protective phytochemical, has been shown to counteract the toxicity of various harmful compounds in both in vitro and animal studies [28]. Co-treatment with SFN was most successful in facilitating smoking toxicity at 10 µg/ml, and this finding aligned with the outcomes of numerous other studies [29, 30]. It seems that sulforaphane synergizes with CSE in reducing cell viability at concentrations exceeding 10 µg/ml. In our clonogenic test, we observed that smoking has long-term toxic effects. Nevertheless, their viability improved when the cells were exposed to sulforaphane, with the most significant impact at 10 µg/ml. Hui Xie et al. demonstrated that SFN had a substantial inhibitory effect on growth, proliferation, and clone formation at 20 µg/ml, and their findings align with our study's [31].
We observed an intriguing result that both CSE and, in high concentration, SFN caused oxidative stress in BEAS-2B cells (Fig. 4). While CSE increased ROS and decreased GSH, SFN demonstrated a protective effect against this harmful impact at a concentration of 10µg/ml. Studies indicate that SFN exhibits a biphasic or hormetic-like dose response in cell culture. This means that at low concentrations (1–10 µM), SFN stimulates cell growth, while at high concentrations (> 10 µM), it inhibits cell growth [32–34]. The contrasting impact of sulforaphane at 5, 10, and 20 µg/ml utilized in this study may be attributed to the biphasic nature of sulforaphane.
Evidence regarding the stimulation of apoptosis in airway epithelial cell lines after exposure to tobacco smoke is contradictory. However, in cases where apoptosis is detected, antioxidants mitigate any observed apoptosis, supporting the theory that smoke-derived free radicals are accountable for the observed apoptosis [35, 36]. Hence, SFN, with its antioxidant characteristics, effectively counteracted the apoptosis caused by CSE at 10 µg/ml. However, at a concentration of 20 µg/ml, the induction of apoptosis was heightened, suggesting the intrinsic nature of SFN in the induction of apoptosis at high concentrations and its synergistic interaction with CSE. Our in-vitro model using DFO has provided clear evidence of the role of ferroptosis in CSE-induced cell death in the BEAS-2B cell line. Our findings indicated that despite a significant rise in intracellular iron levels in the CSE group, LPO was not fully mitigated in the DFO group. This suggests that LPO resulting from smoking exposure is not solely attributed to the ferroptosis pathway. When investigating the ferroptosis pathway in this study, we noticed that while SFN has a protective effect against ferroptosis at low concentrations, it can trigger ferroptosis at exceeding 10 µg/ml. These findings support the notion that phytochemicals should be used cautiously as they can exhibit contrasting effects at different doses [37–39].
Our present study observed a notable reduction in the anti-senescence activity of SFN in BEAS-2B cell lines, as evidenced by a decrease in SA-β-GAL enzyme levels (see Fig. 4). Cellular senescence is a significant factor in driving pulmonary diseases, often characterized by the overexpression of SA-β-GAL [40]Some studies have suggested the involvement of increased ROS in cigarette smoking-induced lung senescence. Elevated ROS levels lead to irreversible damage to DNA, proteins, and lipids. By induced oxidative stress, we showed that CSE exposure induces senescence in BEAS-2B cells. However, SFN demonstrated a protective effect against this harmful impact at a concentration of 10µg/ml.
Despite the positive data collected, conducting additional mechanistic tests would enhance the depth and scope of the results discussed. Additional pulmonary cell lines and in vivo models could be utilized to understand better how SFN reduces toxicity associated with CSE.