Environmental pathology: new directions and opportunities

Our plain-English summary of Environmental pathology: new directions and opportunities, by B.T. Mossman (Toxicologic Pathology, 1999).

The study

• Author: B.T. Mossman
• Journal: Toxicologic Pathology
• Published: 1999;27(2):180-6
• Type of article: Review
• Cited by: 4 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) supports a number of training programs for predoctoral and postdoctoral (D.V.M., M.D., Ph.D.) fellows in toxicology, epidemiology and biostatistics, and environmental pathology. At the Experimental Biology meeting in April 1997, the American Society of Investigative Pathology (ASIP) sponsored a workshop including directors, trainees, and other interested scientists from several environmental pathology programs in medical and veterinary colleges. This workshop and a related session on "Novel Cell Imaging Techniques for Detection of Cell Injury" revealed advances in molecular and cell imaging approaches as reviewed below that have a wide applicability to toxicologic pathology.

In plain English

This article was a review, not an original study. It reviewed cell imaging advances revealed at a 1997 workshop for environmental pathology programs, sponsored by the American Society of Investigative Pathology, and at a related session on imaging techniques for detecting cell injury, and their possible uses in toxicologic pathology. The methods included atomic force microscopy, computerized image analysis of cell death (apoptosis) and DNA synthesis, confocal laser microscopy with several fluorescent labels, and laser scanning cytometry. As examples, the author described laboratory work, mostly from earlier cited papers, on cultured mesothelial cells exposed to asbestos fibers of unnamed type. That work indicated that asbestos fibers may cause both cell death and increased DNA synthesis in mesothelial cells. At low concentrations of asbestos, more cells were making DNA. At higher, toxic concentrations, both DNA-making cells and total cell numbers fell. Other work reported increased c-jun messenger RNA in cells exposed to asbestos or hydrogen peroxide, and more EGFR protein in mesothelial cells after asbestos exposure. The author concluded that this training, together with a motivation to understand disease mechanisms, should lead to new advances in diagnosing, preventing and treating occupational and environmental 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: Review of new cell imaging and molecular techniques for environmental and toxicologic pathology, drawing on a 1997 workshop and a related session. The asbestos examples come from earlier cited laboratory studies, mostly from the author's own department.
• Who was studied: No study population. The review drew on a workshop of directors, trainees and scientists from environmental pathology programs, held at the Experimental Biology meeting in April 1997. The laboratory examples it describes used cultured rat pleural mesothelial cells and human mesothelial cells.
• Exposure: Asbestos fibers (type not specified) applied to cultured mesothelial cells in the cited laboratory studies. Some of the cited work also used hydrogen peroxide and oxidative stress.
• Main results:
  • Cited earlier work (reference 5) used computerized imaging and reported that asbestos fibers may have dual effects on mesothelial cells: inducing both apoptosis (cell death) and increased DNA synthesis.
  • In the cultured cells described, low concentrations of asbestos increased the proportion of cells undergoing DNA synthesis (BrdU-positive cells per total nuclei).
  • At higher, toxic concentrations of fibers, both DNA-synthesizing cells and total cell numbers decreased.
  • The article described the computerized method for classifying apoptosis as telling normal nuclei from apoptotic nuclei with less than a 1% chance of misclassification.
  • In cells exposed to asbestos or hydrogen peroxide, increased c-jun messenger RNA was observed in both dying (TUNEL-positive) and non-dying cells.
  • Cited work (reference 4) placed DNA repair enzymes induced by asbestos in the mitochondria and the nucleus.
  • Cited work (reference 7) showed asbestos fibers interacting with the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) on the cell surface.
  • The same cited work showed increased EGFR protein in mesothelial cells after asbestos exposure.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that training in anatomic pathology and the new cell imaging techniques, together with a motivation to unravel disease mechanisms, should lead to new advances in diagnosis, prevention and therapy of occupational and environmental disease.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Pathology, Epidemiology.

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