International Journal of Experimental Pathology

Our medical research library holds 10 studies published in International Journal of Experimental Pathology (1990–2007). Each entry links to the study's record on PubMed and, where there is one, to the publisher's page and a free full text. 9 have an abstract, the authors' own summary as PubMed records it: open "Abstract" to read it. For 1 study PubMed has no abstract for, we give the abstract printed in the article or, where there is none, a summary we wrote from it, each labeled as such.

About the journal

• Publisher: Wiley
• Published: 1990–2025, England
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0959-9673 (print), 1365-2613 (electronic)
• Continues: Journal of Experimental Pathology (Oxford, England)
• Its record in the NLM Catalog

2000s

• Laser capture microdissection reveals dose-response of gene expression in situ consequent to asbestos exposure. Q. Yin, A.R. Brody, D.E. Sullivan. 2007;88(6):415-25. PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

  Abstract

  The genes that mediate fibroproliferative lung disease remain to be defined. Prior studies from our laboratory showed by in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry that the genes coding for tumour necrosis factor alpha, transforming growth factor beta, the platelet-derived growth factor A and B isoforms, and alpha-1 pro-collagen are expressed in fibroproliferative lesions that develop quickly after asbestos inhalation. These five genes, along with matrix metalloproteinase 9, a collagenase found to be increased in several lung diseases, are known to control matrix production and cell proliferation in humans and animals. Here we show by laser capture microdissection that (i) The six genes are expressed at significantly higher levels in the asbestos-exposed mice when comparing the same anatomic regions 'captured' in unexposed mice. (ii) The bronchiolar-alveolar duct (BAD) junctions, where the greatest number of fibres initially deposit, were always significantly higher than the other anatomic regions for each gene. The first alveolar duct bifurcation (ADB) generally was higher than the second ADB, the ADBs were always significantly higher than the airway walls and pleura, and the airway walls and pleura were generally higher than the unexposed tissues. (iii) Animals exposed for 3 days always exhibited significantly higher levels of gene expression at the BAD junctions and ADBs than animals exposed for 2 days. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a dose-response to a toxic particle in situ, and this response appears to be dependent on the number of fibres that deposits at the individual anatomic site.

1990s

• Effects of cigarette smoke and asbestos on airway, vascular and mesothelial cell proliferation. H. Sekhon, J. Wright, A. Churg. 1995;76(6):411-8. PubMed · Free full text

  Abstract

  In order to determine whether exposure to both cigarette smoke and asbestos leads to enhanced cell proliferation, and whether pleura cell proliferation reflects the presence of fibres at or near the pleura, rats were exposed to air (control), daily cigarette smoke, a single intratracheal instillation of amosite asbestos, or a combination of smoke and asbestos. Dividing cells were labelled with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) and animals were sacrificed at 1, 2, 7 or 14 days. Both cigarette smoke and asbestos produced increases in the labelling index of small airway wall, epithelial cells and pulmonary artery cells. In the small airways there was a brief marked positive synergistic interaction between these two agents, but synergism was not seen in the vessels. Cigarette smoke did not increase the labelling of mesothelial or submesothelial cells, whereas asbestos caused a persisting increase in mesothelial cell labelling. There was no correlation between the number of BrdU labelled mesothelial or submesothelial cells and the number of fibres touching the pleura, or located within 180 microns of the pleura. We conclude that the combination of cigarette smoke and asbestos exposure produces a complex set of interactions and has the potential to markedly increase cell proliferation in the parenchyma, an effect that may be important in both fibrogenesis and carcinogenesis. In contrast to the diminishing effects over time of a single dose of asbestos on cell proliferation in the small airways and vessels, the same dose of asbestos leads to sustained mesothelial cell proliferation. However, the latter process does not correlate with local accumulation of asbestos fibres.

• The mesothelial cell and its role in asbestos-induced pleural injury. M. Kuwahara, E. Kagan. 1995;76(3):163-70. Review PubMed · Free full text

  Summary

  This review examined the role of the pleural mesothelial cell in the pleura's response to injury, with emphasis on possible mechanisms of asbestos-induced pleural fibrosis and diffuse malignant mesothelioma. The authors noted that pleural fibrosis is the most common manifestation of human asbestos-induced disease but that its pathogenesis is poorly understood. They summarised published human, animal and cell-culture studies on pleural anatomy and on the capacity of cultured mesothelial cells to produce cytokines, extracellular matrix components, procoagulant and fibrinolytic factors, and fibroblast chemoattractants and growth factors. They then reviewed evidence on asbestos specifically. Mesothelial cells took up asbestos fibres. Fibres translocated to the pleura, with shorter chrysotile fibrils reported in parietal pleura and plaques. Fibres induced secretion of interleukin-8 and fibronectin, increased collagen synthesis and pleural macrophage recruitment, and caused oxidant injury and activation of the c-fos and c-jun protooncogenes. The authors observed that a neutrophil-driven mechanism lacked clinical foundation, because benign asbestos effusions are rare and most people with plaques have no history of effusion. They also stated that no studies of asbestos and nitric oxide in mesothelial cells were known to them. They proposed a hypothetical scheme in which the mesothelial cell is the key effector cell and the pleural macrophage an important secondary participant. In this scheme, uptake of fibres that have reached the pleura starts a protracted process, which they suggested may explain the location and long latency of the lesions.

  PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

• Asbestos fibre length-dependent detachment injury to alveolar epithelial cells in vitro: role of a fibronectin-binding receptor. K. Donaldson, B.G. Miller, E. Sara, et al. 1993;74(3):243-50. PubMed · Free full text

  Abstract

  A short and a long fibre sample of amosite asbestos were tested for their effects on cells of the human Type 2 alveolar epithelial cell-line A549 in vitro. The long amosite sample was found to cause a rapid detachment of the epithelial cells live from their substratum. At the highest dose, on average 28% of the cells present were detached in this way. Studies on the mechanism of the detachment injury showed that it did not involve oxidants since it was not ameliorated by scavengers of active oxygen species. Neither was the effect reduced by treatment of the fibres with the iron chelator Desferal. Treatments reported to increase the interaction between fibres and cells, serum and poly-L-lysine, did not influence the detachment injury, nor did lung lining fluid. Conversely, the fibronectin tripeptide RGD alone could cause detachment which suggested that a fibronectin-binding integrin was involved. This receptor could be reduced in activity by long fibre exposure, leading to detachment. The detaching effect of fibre could be mimicked by the protein kinase C activator PMA, and so the second messenger system of the cell could also be involved. This type of injury could be important in the pathology associated with exposure to long fibres.

• The production of TNF-alpha and IL-1-like activity by bronchoalveolar leucocytes after intratracheal instillation of crocidolite asbestos. X.Y. Li, D. Lamb, K. Donaldson. 1993;74(4):403-10. PubMed · Free full text

  Abstract

  We have used a rat intratracheal instillation model to study the effect of crocidolite asbestos exposure on cytokine production by bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) leucocytes. In unexposed controls, the normal BAL leucocytes were mostly macrophages which spontaneously produced interleukin 1 (IL-1)-like activity and tumour necrosis factor (TNF-alpha) in culture; these levels were enhanced by stimulation with LPS. In animals exposed to crocidolite asbestos, two new types of cell, neutrophils and eosinophils, were recruited into the bronchoalveolar space by 1-3 days after instillation. However, the BAL profile had returned to normal by 14 days. The production of IL-1-like activity was decreased considerably compared to control from 1 to 14 days after asbestos instillation, but was increased at 30 days. However, the leucocytes produced increased TNF-alpha as early as 3 days after asbestos instillation and maintained this elevated level throughout the experimental period. Crocidolite asbestos in vitro also stimulated normal BAL leucocytes to release significantly increased amounts of IL-1-like activity and TNF-alpha. We conclude that the deposition of crocidolite asbestos fibre in the lung by instillation causes reduced production of IL-1-like activity in the acute phase, but elevated production of both IL-1-like activity and TNF in the chronic phase, suggesting that enhanced activities of these cytokines may contribute to the development of lung pathological changes in the long term.

• Effects of cigarette smoke on the clearance of short asbestos fibres from the lung and a comparison with the clearance of long asbestos fibres. A. Churg, J.L. Wright, J. Hobson, et al. 1992;73(3):287-97. PubMed · Free full text

  Abstract

  Long asbestos fibres are generally considered to have greater disease-producing potential than short asbestos fibres. However, recent reports have suggested that short fibre asbestos appears to be as effective an inducer of macrophage growth factors and toxic oxygen species as long fibre asbestos, but that short fibres are readily removed from lung and do not gain access to tissues. Because smoke is believed to impair the clearance of asbestos fibres from lung, we examined the clearance of a short (geometric mean length 1.3 microns) amosite preparation administered by intratracheal instillation to guinea-pigs. Half the animals in each group were exposed to the smoke of 10 cigarettes daily. Animals were sacrificed 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month later, the macrophages recovered by lavage, and fibre concentrations and sizes determined by analytical electron microscopy in macrophages and lung tissue. A 30-fold increase was seen in total numbers of fibres retained in macrophages in smokers compared to non-smokers by 1 month, and there was an eightfold increase in retention of short fibres in the lung tissue by 1 month. By contrast, a long fibre amosite preparation (geometric mean length 8.9 microns) showed approximately the same increase in fibre retention in macrophages, but only a twofold increase in tissue retention. We conclude that (1) cigarette smoke markedly impairs the clearance of short amosite fibres from the lung with enhanced retention of fibres in both macrophages and tissue; (2) the effects of smoke on short fibre tissue retention appear to be greater than those on long fibre retention; (3) with the long fibre preparation, smoke causes increased tissue retention of relatively shorter fibres; (4) for both fibre size experiments, the increase in total fibres in macrophages in smoke-exposed animals reflects an increase in the total number of fibre-containing macrophages, rather than an increase in the number of fibres phagocytized per macrophage; (5) enhanced short fibre retention markedly increases total fibre surface area, a parameter which has been suggested as a measure of fibre toxicity, to the point where short fibres might under some circumstances have roughly the same potential toxicity as long fibres. These observations suggest that short asbestos fibres could play an important role in the pathogenesis of some types of asbestos-related disease in cigarette smokers.

• The effects of intrapleural injections of alumina and aluminosilicate (ceramic) fibres. G.H. Pigott, J. Ishmael. 1992;73(2):137-46. PubMed · Free full text

  Abstract

  Groups of rats, 24 male and 24 female, approximately 8 weeks old, were dosed by a single intrapleural injection with a saline suspension of refractory alumina fibres (Saffil fibres ICI plc) either as manufactured or after extensive thermal ageing; or one of two aluminosilicate ('ceramic') fibres with different diameter distributions. Similar groups were dosed with a suspension of UICC chrysotile A asbestos or saline solution to serve as positive and negative controls respectively. Rats were maintained to 85% mortality and all decedents and terminal sacrifices were closely examined for the presence of mesothelioma. Malignant mesothelioma was diagnosed in ten rats, seven dosed with asbestos and three dosed with aluminosilicate fibre B. No mesothelioma was detected in any rat dosed with Saffil fibres or aluminosilicate fibre A or in negative controls. The results support the predicted inert nature of Saffil alumina fibres and provide further evidence for the importance of fibre dimension in the induction of mesothelioma. The implication of the results for inhalation exposures is discussed.

• Experimental studies in rats on the effects of asbestos inhalation coupled with the inhalation of titanium dioxide or quartz. J.M. Davis, A.D. Jones, B.G. Miller. 1991;72(5):501-25. PubMed · Free full text

  Abstract

  Rats were exposed for 1 year, with a 2-year follow-up, to dust clouds consisting of a mixture of amosite or chrysotile asbestos with either titanium dioxide or quartz. The addition of titanium dioxide to asbestos did not increase levels of pulmonary fibrosis above the amounts produced by chrysotile or amosite alone. Quartz, however, greatly increased fibrosis above that produced by the asbestos types alone. Both particulate dusts caused an increase in the numbers of pulmonary tumours and mesotheliomas compared to asbestos alone but while tumours in animals treated with asbestos and quartz tended to occur earlier than tumours with asbestos alone, in animals treated with dusts containing titanium dioxide, tumour production occurred later than with asbestos alone. In animals treated with mixtures of asbestos and quartz, there was evidence of increased transport of fibres across the visceral pleural surface and this may be associated with the finding of a higher proportion of pleural mesotheliomas than previously reported in experimental inhalation studies from any laboratory using the main asbestos varieties. The presence of particulate dusts made little difference to the amounts of amosite fibre retained in the lung tissue but, with chrysotile, titanium dioxide appeared to increase retention while quartz reduced it.

• Mesothelioma dose response following intraperitoneal injection of mineral fibres. J.M. Davis, R.E. Bolton, B.G. Miller, et al. 1991;72(3):263-74. PubMed · Free full text

  Abstract

  The relationship between injected dose and the development of peritoneal mesotheliomas has been examined in rats using the UTCC standard reference samples of chrysotile, crocidolite and amosite as well as a sample of fibrous erionite from Oregon. Doses injected into the peritoneal cavity ranged from 0.005 to 25 mg and with each dust a clear dose response was found. The proportion of animals developing tumours increased with the amount of dust injected while the tumour induction period was reduced. When times to death from mesothelioma were analysed using standard hazard models, erionite was the most carcinogenic dust by mass followed by chrysotile, amosite and crocidolite. The hazard slopes for erionite, chrysotile and crocidolite, over the range of doses examined, were parallel while the slope for amosite was shallower. The relative hazards for the various dust types were also examined with dose expressed as the number of injected fibres in a range of sizes as measured by SEM. No combination of fibre dimensions was found at which the hazard for the four dust types was equal although when dose was expressed as the number of long fibres injected (> 8 microns in length) the hazard slopes for chrysotile, crocidolite and amosite were relatively close. The hazard level of erionite remained well above the other dust types regardless of how the dose was expressed.

• Measurement of reactive oxygen metabolites produced by human monocyte-derived macrophages exposed to mineral dusts. P. Nyberg, M. Klockars. 1990;71(4):537-44. PubMed · Free full text

  Abstract

  The aim of the present work was to develop an in-vitro model for studying mineral dust-induced production of reactive oxygen metabolites by human macrophages. Monocytes isolated from human buffy coats were cultured in vitro for 1-6 days. Quartz particles induced both luminol- and lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescence (CL) by the adherent cells. However, the luminol response decreased form day to day, obviously due to a decrease in the myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity of the cells, whereas the lucigenin response showed no such MPO dependence. The luminol response was inhibited by superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase, and the MPO-inhibitor azide, while the lucigenin response was inhibited by SOD and catalase but stimulated by azide. There was a positive correlation between the lucigenin responses and the results obtained with the established cytochrome c assay for superoxide, when opsonized zymosan was used as a stimulant. The effects of quartz, titanium dioxide, chrysotile asbestos, and wollastonite particles were investigated with the lucigenin assay. Quartz and chrysotile caused prominent light emission by 6-day-old macrophages, whereas titanium dioxide and wollastonite caused weak responses. We conclude that mineral dusts induce production of reactive oxygen metabolites by human monocyte-derived macrophages, and that the quantitative responses depend on both physical and physicochemical dust properties, the nature of which are still to be defined.

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