Apoptosis and asbestos-induced disease: Is there a connection?

Our plain-English summary of Apoptosis and asbestos-induced disease: Is there a connection?, by V.C. Broaddus (The Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine, 2001).

The study

• Author: V.C. Broaddus
• Journal: The Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine
• Published: 2001;137(5):314-5
• Type of article: Comment, Editorial
• Cited by: 3 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This article was a short editorial, not an original study, and it reported no new data of its own. The author wrote it to accompany a report by Aljandali and colleagues, published in the same issue of the journal, on apoptosis (a regulated form of cell death) in alveolar epithelial cells exposed to asbestos. The editorial reviewed what was then known about how asbestos fibers might cause lung fibrosis (asbestosis) and pleural mesothelioma. It described earlier laboratory and animal work by others and by the author, including the possible roles of iron in the fibers and of fiber shape. It discussed two possibilities. Apoptosis might contribute to fibrosis through a repair response. For cancer, apoptosis might instead hold tumors back, so that blocking it could matter. The author concluded that the direct role of apoptosis in asbestos-induced disease was unclear, and that apoptosis in lung or pleura could fairly be called a marker of injury from asbestos. Its specific role would await further studies, particularly ones in which apoptosis is specifically inhibited.

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: Editorial (commentary on another article in the same journal issue); no original data
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the direct role of apoptosis in asbestos-induced disease was unclear, that apoptosis in lung or pleura is a marker for the injurious effects of asbestos, and that its specific role awaits further studies, particularly ones in which apoptosis is specifically inhibited.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author stated that, at the time, the role of apoptosis in causing disease could only be speculated about.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Lung cancer.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Apoptosis.

Related studies

• The Role of Mitochondrial DNA in Mediating Alveolar Epithelial Cell Apoptosis and Pulmonary Fibrosis — S.J. Kim, P. Cheresh, et al. (2015)
• Asbestos-induced pulmonary toxicity: role of DNA damage and apoptosis — D. Upadhyay, D.W. Kamp (2003)
• SIRT3 deficiency promotes lung fibrosis by augmenting alveolar epithelial cell mitochondrial DNA damage and apoptosis — R.P. Jablonski, S.J. Kim, et al. (2017)
• P53 mediates amosite asbestos-induced alveolar epithelial cell mitochondria-regulated apoptosis — V. Panduri, S. Surapureddi, et al. (2006)
• Expression of the T cell receptor Vbeta repertoire in a human T cell resistant to asbestos-induced apoptosis and peripheral blood T cells from patients with silica and asbestos-related diseases — Y. Nishimura, Y. Miura, et al. (2006)
• The molecular basis of asbestos induced lung injury — D.W. Kamp, S.A. Weitzman (1999)

Browse return to medical research.