Antibody producing cells in the spleens of mice treated with pathogenic mineral dust

Our plain-English summary of Antibody producing cells in the spleens of mice treated with pathogenic mineral dust, by S. Szymaniec, D.M. Brown, M. Chladzynska, et al (British Journal of Industrial Medicine, 1989).

The study

• Authors: S. Szymaniec, D.M. Brown, M. Chladzynska, E. Jankowska, H. Polikowska, K. Donaldson
• Journal: British Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 1989;46(10):724-8
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

Experiments were carried out to assess the effect of intraperitoneal injection of the mineral dusts, titanium dioxide, quartz, or asbestos, on splenic lymphocyte antibody forming cells in immunised mice. Titanium dioxide and quartz caused similar, about one third, reductions in plaque forming cells; asbestos caused substantial reduction to about a quarter of the number found in control spleens. The inhibition of antibody forming cells in the spleen found with chrysotile was dose dependent and both chrysotile and crocidolite asbestos were similar in activity. Systemic immunomodulation after local deposition of mineral dust may be important to the development of disease.

In plain English

This was an animal experiment in which syngeneic CBA and C57B16 mice were given a single intraperitoneal injection of 0.5 ml saline containing mineral dust (titanium dioxide, DQ12 quartz, UICC chrysotile standard sample 'A', or crocidolite), or saline alone, three days before immunisation with sheep red blood cells; antibody producing cells in the spleen were counted as plaque forming cells (PFC) four days after immunisation. Peritoneal lavage four days after injection showed increased total cells and neutrophils with quartz, chrysotile and crocidolite, but not with titanium dioxide. Across five experiments, titanium dioxide and quartz each reduced splenic PFC by about one third, while chrysotile reduced them to about a quarter of control values (chrysotile versus titanium dioxide p less than 0.001; no significant difference between quartz and titanium dioxide). The chrysotile effect was dose dependent. In a single experiment, plaque forming cells per million splenocytes were 1327 (SEM 229) with saline, 539 (266) with chrysotile and 589 (191) with crocidolite. The authors concluded that systemic immunomodulation after local dust deposition may matter for disease development.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Animal experiment in mice (laboratory immunology study of intraperitoneal mineral dust injection)
• Who was studied: Syngeneic CBA and C57B16 mice, injected in groups of three to eight animals; work from institutes in Wroclaw, Poland and Edinburgh, UK (published 1989)
• Exposure: Single intraperitoneal injection of 2.5 mg of mineral dust (titanium dioxide rutile, DQ12 quartz, UICC chrysotile asbestos standard sample 'A', or crocidolite) in 0.5 ml saline, three days before immunisation; occasionally lower doses were used
• Main results:
  • Titanium dioxide and quartz each reduced splenic plaque forming cells by about one third, while chrysotile reduced them to about a quarter of the number in control immunised spleens (five experiments, four mice per group)
  • Statistical comparisons for Fig 1: quartz, TiO2 and chrysotile all gave significantly fewer PFC than saline; chrysotile significantly fewer than TiO2 (p less than 0.001); no significant difference between quartz and TiO2
  • Chrysotile produced a dose dependent fall in splenic PFC (three experiments, five mice per treatment group)
  • In one experiment, mean (SEM) plaque forming cells per million splenocytes were 1327 (229) for saline, 539 (266) for chrysotile and 589 (191) for crocidolite
  • The authors reported these asbestos reductions in splenic PFC as significant at p less than 0.01 compared with saline
  • Peritoneal inflammation four days after injection: total leukocytes (x10^6) 4.1 (1.0) saline, 7.0 (2.5) TiO2, 11.4 (2.0) quartz, 14.2 (1.2) chrysotile, 27.9 (3.3) crocidolite; TiO2 caused no inflammation beyond a slight macrophage increase
  • Immunosuppression did not simply track inflammation: chrysotile was more immunosuppressive than quartz despite both causing much more inflammation than TiO2, and crocidolite caused more inflammation than chrysotile but similar PFC reduction
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that systemic immunomodulation following local deposition of mineral dust may be important to the development of disease, with the immunosuppression associated with carcinogenic asbestos fibres of particular potential importance, and that further work is warranted
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors noted the model could be criticised because the immunogen was placed in the peritoneal cavity where dust induced inflammation had already been caused
  • The authors noted the results reflect an acute response three days after a large dose; at eight days the inhibitory effect on splenic PFC was substantially reduced (data not included), and chronic exposure might give a different pattern
  • The authors noted the peritoneal model differs from inhalation in site of deposition and in being a single-hit rather than repeated daily exposure
  • The authors noted their finding of inhibited antibody forming cells contradicts epidemiological studies of asbestos exposed workers, which tended to show suppressed T cell immunity with a slight adjuvant effect on humoral immunity

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Chrysotile, Crocidolite.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Chrysotile, Crocidolite, Deposition.

Related studies

• A spin label study of the effects of asbestos, quartz, and titanium dioxide dusts on the bovine erythrocyte membrane — W. Leyko, E. Gendek (1985)
• Kinetics of the bronchoalveolar leucocyte response in rats during exposure to equal airborne mass concentrations of quartz, chrysotile asbestos, or titanium dioxide — K. Donaldson, R.E. Bolton, et al. (1988)
• Fibrinolysis by rat mesothelial cells in vitro: the effect of mineral dusts at non-toxic doses — K. Donaldson, G.M. Brown, et al. (1988)
• The effect of different mineral dusts on the mechanism of phagocytosis: a scanning electron microscope study — K. Miller, R.I. Handfield, et al. (1978)
• The chemiluminescent response of human phagocytic cells to mineral dusts — I.P. Gormley, M.J. Kowolik, et al. (1985)
• Comparative health effects in mice of Libby amphibole asbestos and a fibrous amphibole from Arizona — J.C. Pfau, B. Buck, et al. (2017)

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