ABSTRACT
Nanoparticles in the Lung: Environmental Exposure and Drug Delivery-this book covers a challenging and important eld of research activity: studies on the interaction of our organism with the environment. The lung is the main portal of entry of our organism for any type of particulate matter. Within the lung, it is the whole internal surface exposed to air with which particulate matter may interact. The book logically begins with an excursion on the deposition of particulate matter, in particular, its nano-fraction (Chapters 2 and 19). It is their physics and chemistry that already makes the deposition process of these minuscule particles a special one, quite different from that of larger, micron-sized particles. The book then continues reviewing the interaction of nanoparticles (NPs) with structures of the internal lung surface. It starts with the aqueous lining layer and the surfactant at the air-liquid interface, which is the rst structure NPs encounter when deposited and continues with the subsequent processes affecting the structures. These processes determine the fate of the NPs in the pulmonary tissue, and they are governed by physics and chemistry.
