Influence of the sialic acid content of the membrane on its susceptibility to chrysotile

Our plain-English summary of Influence of the sialic acid content of the membrane on its susceptibility to chrysotile, by J. Depasse (Environmental Research, 1982).

The study

• Author: J. Depasse
• Journal: Environmental Research
• Published: 1982;27(2):384-8
• Cited by: 6 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Sialic acid removal from human erythrocytes does not influence their susceptibility to chrysotile. This is in contradiction with the view that hemolysis by chrysotile is related to the clustering of membrane sialoproteins by the mineral. Sialic acid removal from horse erythrocytes slightly decreases their sensitivity toward chrysotile. As horse, but not human, erythrocytes contain lipid-bound sialic acid, it supports the proposal that interactions between chrysotile and the lipidic part of the membrane are responsible for the hemolytic activity of that mineral.

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

In plain English

This was a laboratory experiment by a single author at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. It tested whether sialic acid, a negatively charged sugar on the red blood cell membrane, affects how easily chrysotile asbestos bursts those cells (hemolysis). The author used UICC samples of Canada chrysotile, three samples of human red blood cells and two of horse red blood cells. Some cells were first treated with neuraminidase, an enzyme that removes sialic acid. Treated and untreated cells were then incubated for 1 hour at 37°C with various amounts of chrysotile, and the hemoglobin released was measured. Removing sialic acid did not change how susceptible human red blood cells were to chrysotile. The author noted this contrasted with earlier results by Harington and colleagues (1971). In horse red blood cells, removing sialic acid slightly decreased sensitivity to chrysotile. Horse cells, unlike human cells, contain sialic acid bound to lipids. The author concluded this supports the view that chrysotile bursts red cells through interactions with the fatty (lipid) part of the membrane. The hemolysis measurements were plotted in five graphs, without numerical hemolysis values in the text.

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 red blood cells
• Who was studied: Red blood cells: three samples of human erythrocytes and two samples of horse erythrocytes, some treated with neuraminidase to remove sialic acid and some untreated
• Exposure: UICC samples of Canada chrysotile at various amounts, incubated with the cells for 1 hour at 37°C
• Main results:
  • In human red blood cells, removing sialic acid (3.2 x 10^7 sialic acid molecules per cell) did not change the cells' susceptibility to chrysotile. The author noted this contrasted with the results of Harington et al. (1971).
  • In horse red blood cells, releasing sialic acid slightly decreased the cells' sensitivity to chrysotile.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the human cell results contradict the view that chrysotile bursts red cells by clustering membrane sialoproteins. Because horse, but not human, red blood cells contain lipid-bound sialic acid, the horse results support the proposal that interactions between chrysotile and the lipid part of the membrane are responsible for its hemolytic activity.

Topics

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

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

Related studies

• Hemolysis by chrysotile asbestos fibers. I. Influence of the sialic acid content in human, rat, and sheep red blood cell membranes — J.P. Pelé, R. Calvert (1983)
• Sialic acid mediates the initial binding of positively charged inorganic particles to alveolar macrophage membranes — J.E. Gallagher, G. George, et al. (1987)
• Chemical and photoelectron spectrometry analysis of the adsorption of phospholipid model membranes and red blood cell membranes on to chrysotile fibres — M.C. Jaurand, J.H. Thomassin, et al. (1980)
• Interactions of chrysotile asbestos with erythrocyte membranes — A.R. Brody, L.H. Hill (1983)
• Interrelationship between hemolysis and lipid peroxidation of human erythrocytes induced by silicic acid and silicate dusts — S.V. Singh, Q. Rahman (1987)
• A spin label study of the effect of chrysotile asbestos on erythrocyte membranes — E. Gendek, G. Bartosz, et al. (1984)

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