Cytotoxic action of mineral dusts on CHV 79 cells in vitro: factors affecting toxicity

Our plain-English summary of Cytotoxic action of mineral dusts on CHV 79 cells in vitro: factors affecting toxicity, by S.O. Lock, M. Chamberlain (Environmental Health Perspectives, 1983).

The study

• Authors: S.O. Lock, M. Chamberlain
• Journal: Environmental Health Perspectives
• Published: 1983;51:189-93
• Cited by: 4 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

The cytotoxic action of a series of mineral dusts has been studied using Chinese hamster V79-4 cells obtained from three separate laboratories in the UK. The dusts which have been studied include samples of asbestos from the Union Internationale Contre le Cancer reference series and an internationally available sample of quartz (DQ12). Besides comparing results obtained with the three different cells, two alternative methods of exposing the cells to the dusts were also compared. The toxicity assay employed uses the inhibition of colony formation from a single cell suspension as a measure of toxicity. The numbers of colonies which grow in the presence of the various concentrations of the dusts are expressed as percentages of the colonies which grow in the untreated control cultures. The absolute toxicity of a dust was found to depend principally on the method of exposing the cells to the dust. However, differences in the relative toxicities of the dusts depended on the source of the cells. The implications of these results for experiments in which Chinese hamster V79-4 cells are used in in vitro test systems to assess the potential pathogenicity of mineral dusts are discussed.

In plain English

In this laboratory study, the authors tested how toxic several mineral dusts were to Chinese hamster V79-4 cells obtained from three UK laboratories (V79-P, V79-U and V79-H). The dusts were amosite, crocidolite, anthophyllite and chrysotile B asbestos from the Union Internationale Contre le Cancer reference series, plus a standard quartz (DQ12). Toxicity was measured as the dust concentration that cut colony survival to half that of untreated cultures. Lower numbers mean more toxic. Different batches of fetal calf serum changed the toxicity of crocidolite and quartz. A second exposure method (method B) generally made the dusts more toxic, most markedly chrysotile: 5.0 to 6.0 micrograms per mL with method A versus 0.60 to 0.72 with method B. All three cell sources were equally sensitive to chrysotile, but V79-P cells were 2 to 8 times more sensitive to the other dusts. The authors concluded that absolute toxicity depended mainly on the exposure method and relative toxicity on the source of the cells. They urged caution when using cells from different sources to predict whether dusts may cause 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) cell culture experiment. Toxicity was measured by how far dust exposure reduced the formation of cell colonies. Results were expressed as the dust concentration that reduced survival to 50% of untreated control cultures.
• Who was studied: Chinese hamster V79-4 cells obtained from three laboratories in the United Kingdom: V79-U (Manchester), V79-P (Penarth) and V79-H (Harwell). No people or animals were studied.
• Exposure: Amosite, crocidolite, anthophyllite and chrysotile B from the Union Internationale Contre le Cancer standard reference series, and the international standard quartz DQ12. Cells were tested with two exposure methods (A and B) and with different batches of fetal calf serum.
• Main results:
  • When crocidolite and quartz DQ12 were tested in three different batches of fetal calf serum (V79-P cells, method A), the toxicity of the two dusts varied from batch to batch. This also changed how they ranked against each other.
  • Dusts were generally more toxic with method B than with method A, but the size of the increase differed between dusts.
  • The increase in toxicity with method B was most marked for chrysotile, which the authors described as a seven- to ninefold increase.
  • Method A results, as the concentration giving 50% survival in micrograms per mL (V79-P / V79-U / V79-H): chrysotile 5.0 / 6.0 / 6.0; amosite 5.0 / 42.0 / 59.0; crocidolite 14.0 / 43.0 / 45.0; anthophyllite 23.0 / 59.0 / 100.0; quartz DQ12 78.0 / 200.0 / 200.0.
  • Method B results, as the concentration giving 50% survival in micrograms per mL (V79-P / V79-U / V79-H): chrysotile 0.72 / 0.66 / 0.60; amosite 8.0 / 28.7 / 36.5; crocidolite 21.0 / 35.7 / 40.0; anthophyllite 15.1 / 40.2 / 42.7; quartz DQ12 90.0 / 180.0 / 140.0.
  • All three cell sources were equally sensitive to chrysotile. Compared with V79-U cells, V79-P cells were more sensitive to the remaining dusts by factors of 2 to 8 times.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the absolute toxicity of a dust depended principally on the method of exposing the cells to it. Differences in the relative toxicities of the dusts depended on the source of the cells. In their view, this calls for caution when V79-4 cells from different sources are used to predict the potential pathogenicity of dusts.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors stated that differences in dust-to-cell ratio and growth area between the two methods could not explain all of the observed differences.
  • The authors noted that the three cell lines may have become contaminated by other cell lines during many years in culture, or may be diverging sublines. Work to confirm their origin was still in progress.

Topics

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

Related studies

• Effect of mineral dusts on metabolic cooperation between Chinese hamster V79 cells in vitro — M. Chamberlain (1983)
• The cytotoxic effects of asbestos and other mineral dust in tissue culture cell lines — M. Chamberlain, R.C. Brown (1978)
• In vitro correlates of mineral dust toxicity — R.C. Brown, A. Poole, et al. (1986)
• Cytotoxic effects of some mineral dusts on Syrian hamster peritoneal macrophages — E. Bey, J.S. Harington (1971)
• Effects of nonfibrous minerals in the V79-4 cytotoxicity test — G.H. Pigott, P.J. Pinto (1983)
• The ability of mineral dusts and fibres to initiate lipid peroxidation. Part I: parameters which determine this ability — M. Gulumian (1999)

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