Coagulation of human plasma by asbestos fibers

Our plain-English summary of Coagulation of human plasma by asbestos fibers, by J.A. Hamilton, J.Y. Chan, H.Z. Movat (Environmental Research, 1981).

The study

• Authors: J.A. Hamilton, J.Y. Chan, H.Z. Movat
• Journal: Environmental Research
• Published: 1981;26(1):119-24
• Cited by: 4 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Negatively and positively charged asbestos fibers shorten the partial thromboplastin time of human plasma, indicating coagulation of the plasma. A sample containing short (<5 µm in length) chrysotile fibers is ineffective. Only the negatively charged amphiboles (crocidolite and amosite) are able to activate factor XII (Hageman factor). This particular effect of the amphiboles is enhanced by high-molecular-weight kininogen and leads to kinin formation.

PubMed has no abstract for this study. This is the authors' abstract, copied from the article.

In plain English

This was a laboratory study done in test tubes. No people or workers were studied. The authors mixed suspensions of IARC-standardized asbestos samples, supplied by a Mt. Sinai School of Medicine laboratory in New York, with normal human plasma from the Canadian Red Cross. The samples were crocidolite, amosite, chrysotile A and chrysotile B, plus a sample of very short Calidria chrysotile fibers. They measured how fast the plasma clotted (the partial thromboplastin time) and whether the fibers activated a clotting protein called factor XII. With crocidolite only, they also tested whether kinins, substances linked to inflammation, were produced. At 10 mg/ml, clotting time was 60 seconds with crocidolite, 61 with amosite, 69 with chrysotile A and 104 with chrysotile B, compared with 234 seconds for buffer alone. The short Calidria chrysotile gave 357 seconds at that concentration. Only amosite and crocidolite activated factor XII. Crocidolite produced kinins from normal plasma but not from plasma lacking factor XII or high-molecular-weight kininogen. The authors suggested these effects may be partly responsible for the link between asbestos inhalation and lung disease.

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: Laboratory (in vitro) experiment on human plasma, with a rat uterus bioassay used to measure kinin activity
• Who was studied: No human subjects. The tests used normal human plasma (acid-citrate-dextrose) from the Canadian Red Cross. The kinin tests also used factor XII-deficient (Hird) and HMW kininogen-deficient (Williams) plasma. Uteri from female albino rats were used to measure kinin activity.
• Exposure: Suspensions (10 mg/ml stock) of IARC crocidolite and IARC amosite (described as negatively charged amphiboles) and IARC chrysotile A and B (described as positively charged), plus Calidria chrysotile in which about 95% of fibers were under 5 micrometers long. Kaolin and quartz were used as control materials. The asbestos and quartz samples were provided by Dr. A. N. Rohl, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York.
• Main results:
  • Clotting times of normal human plasma at 10 mg/ml were: IARC crocidolite 60 sec, IARC amosite 61 sec, IARC chrysotile A 69 sec, IARC chrysotile B 104 sec, Calidria chrysotile 357 sec, quartz 67 sec, kaolin 57 sec and buffer 234 sec.
  • The very short Calidria chrysotile fibers prolonged the clotting time at 10 mg/ml. At lower concentrations they shortened it slightly, to the range of 160 to 200 sec.
  • The amosite sample still showed maximum activity on clotting time when the stock solution was diluted more than 60 times
  • Only amosite and crocidolite activated factor XII in the presence of HMW kininogen. This was similar to kaolin and quartz.
  • Crocidolite, the only fiber tested for kinin generation, generated kinin from normal human plasma. The maximum came after 5 minutes of incubation.
  • Crocidolite generated no kinin from factor XII-deficient or HMW kininogen-deficient plasma
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the ability of asbestos fibers to speed clotting of human plasma, and of the negatively charged types to generate kinin activity, may be partly responsible for the relationship between asbestos inhalation and lung disease
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The effect of different dilutions on clotting time was tested only for some samples, not for the other active samples
  • The authors did not test whether chrysotiles generate kinin, or whether the findings hold for other asbestos samples
  • The mechanism by which chrysotiles sped up clotting was not explained

Mines named here

Asbestos mines this study is about. Each mine's page says who ran it, when it worked, and what it produced.

• Santa Rita mine, Joaquin Ridge near Coalinga, California

All asbestos mines

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Chrysotile, Amphibole Group, Crocidolite, Amosite.

Related studies

• Asbestos fibers, plasma and inflammation — J.A. Hamilton (1983)
• Cold-plasma coagulation in the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma: results of a combined approach — M. Hoffmann, H.P. Bruch, et al. (2010)
• Intraoperative argon-plasma coagulation treatment for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma — A. Iyoda, Y. Azuma, et al. (2021)
• The pathogenesis of hemophilia; an experimental analysis of the anticephalin hypothesis in hemophilic dogs — J.B. Graham, E.M. Barrow (1957)
• Asbestos exposure results in increased lung procoagulant activity in vivo and in vitro — K.S. Callahan, D.E. Griffith, et al. (1990)
• A comparison of asbestos fiber potency and elongate mineral particle (EMP) potency for mesothelioma in humans — D.H. Garabrant, S.T. Pastula (2018)

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