Isolation of diatoms and asbestos bodies from lungs by subtilisin-A

Our plain-English summary of Isolation of diatoms and asbestos bodies from lungs by subtilisin-A, by A.A. Watson, J.S. Oliver (Lancet, 1979).

The study

• Authors: A.A. Watson, J.S. Oliver
• Journal: Lancet
• Published: 1979;2(8148):913-4
• Type of article: Letter
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This was a short letter to the editor from the Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Glasgow, describing a laboratory method rather than a study of asbestos disease. The authors sought a safer way than boiling concentrated acids to find diatoms (microscopic single-celled algae) in lung tissue, which can help show drowning as a cause of death. They digested 1 g of lung tissue with an enzyme, subtilisin-A, at 60 degrees C for 1 hour, then centrifuged and washed the residue and examined it microscopically. In twenty cases of suspected drowning, diatoms were readily found in eighteen within two hours of the tissue arriving. The authors reported getting results in less than one-tenth of the time of acid methods. They also noted that asbestos bodies could be readily identified in some lung samples, appearing clean and freed from their usual protein bands. The letter did not say how many samples contained asbestos bodies, the fiber types, or the people's exposures. The authors suggested the technique might appeal to histopathologists interested in asbestosis.

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: Letter to the editor describing a laboratory tissue-digestion method, used on a series of forensic cases
• Who was studied: Lung tissue samples from twenty cases of suspected drowning, examined at the Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Glasgow; no dates given
• Exposure: Asbestos exposure was not studied. Asbestos bodies were an incidental finding in some lung samples. No fiber types, products, jobs or doses were given.
• Main results:
  • Among the twenty cases of suspected drowning, diatoms were readily demonstrated in eighteen, within two hours of the tissue arriving
  • The authors reported that the enzyme method produced results in less than one-tenth of the time taken by conventional acid degradation
  • In some lung samples (number not stated), asbestos bodies were readily identified and appeared clean and freed from their characteristic proteinaceous adherent bands
• The authors' conclusion: The authors described the technique as simple and safe, and suggested tentatively that it might appeal to histopathologists with a special interest in asbestosis

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestos Bodies.

Related studies

• A procedure for the isolation of amosite asbestos and ferruginous bodies from lung tissue and sputum — M.G. Williams, R.F. Dodson, et al. (1982)
• A procedure for the isolation of asbestos bodies from lung tissue by exploiting their magnetic properties: a new approach to asbestos body study — V. Borelli, C. Brochetta, et al. (2007)
• Asbestos bodies in human lungs at autopsy — D. Cauna, R.S. Totten, et al. (1965)
• Relationship between number of asbestos bodies in autopsy lung and pleural plaques on chest X-ray film — T. Kishimoto, T. Ono, et al. (1989)
• Asbestos bodies and pleural plaques in human lungs at necropsy — I. Hägerstrand, B. Seifert (1973)
• Asbestos bodies in lung parenchyma in relation to ingestion and inhalation of mineral fibers — O. Auerbach, E.C. Hammond, et al. (1977)

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