Keynote address: potential of in vitro tests in asbestos-related problems

Our plain-English summary of Keynote address: potential of in vitro tests in asbestos-related problems, by I.J. Selikoff, A.L. Frank (Environmental Health Perspectives, 1983).

The study

• Authors: I.J. Selikoff, A.L. Frank
• Journal: Environmental Health Perspectives
• Published: 1983;51:1-4
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 000641).

In plain English

This article is the text of a keynote address, not a conventional research report. The authors, from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, outlined unanswered questions about asbestos-related disease that, in their view, laboratory (in vitro) tests on cells might help answer. These included why people with similar exposure develop very different amounts of lung and pleural fibrosis, and why disease takes decades to appear. They also asked why some organs reached by asbestos fibers show increased cancer while others, such as the liver, do not, and whether there is a lower limit of exposure below which pleural mesothelioma does not increase. Further questions were how asbestos and cigarette smoking act together in lung cancer, and why stopping smoking lowers lung cancer risk among asbestos workers. They described preliminary immune testing in their laboratory, in which approximately one-third of an initial group of more than 200 men showed some degree of immunosuppression. The authors concluded that better understanding of basic mechanisms may improve management and treatment of people exposed in the past.

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: Keynote address (commentary) outlining research questions, with brief mention of preliminary findings from the authors' laboratory
• Who was studied: No study population for the address as a whole; the preliminary immune testing described involved an initial group of more than 200 men among asbestos insulation and asbestos factory workers
• Exposure: Asbestos exposure in general (inhaled fibrous silicate minerals), including its interaction with cigarette smoking; fiber types are not specified
• Main results:
  • The authors stated that it is not understood why interstitial fibrosis develops after asbestos exposure, or why people with equal exposure develop it to different degrees
  • The authors stated that only some organs show a cancer response to asbestos. They noted that asbestos fibers have been found in workers' livers without an increased incidence of primary hepatocellular carcinoma in cohort studies, and suggested studying organ differences.
  • The authors stated that it is not known whether there is a lower limit of asbestos exposure that would not be associated with increased pleural mesothelioma, and that in vitro studies would be valuable for low exposure levels
  • The authors called for investigation of how cells respond to asbestos and cigarette smoke, singly and together, and of why cells of different organs respond differently to the combination
  • The authors stated that the cellular changes behind the reduced lung cancer risk in asbestos workers who stop smoking are unknown
  • The authors described ongoing immune studies in their laboratory, with J. G. Bekesi, of asbestos insulation and factory workers. Initial investigation of a group of more than 200 men showed lesser or greater degrees of immunosuppression in approximately one-third.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that appropriate in vitro test systems could help explain cell responses to asbestos. They also concluded that better understanding of basic mechanisms may allow improved management and treatment of people exposed to asbestos in the past.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors observed that the longer-surviving mesothelioma patients had normal or near-normal immune status, and noted there is no necessary cause-and-effect relationship between these observations

Related studies

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• Present status of asbestos mining and related health problems in India--a survey — A.L. Ramanathan, V. Subramanian (2001)
• Keynote lecture in the 13th Japanese Society of Immunotoxicology (JSIT 2006) : -Pathophysiological Development and Immunotoxicology: what we have found from research related to silica and silicate such as asbestos- — T. Otsuki, Y. Miura, et al. (2007)
• Assessment of the pathogenic potential of asbestiform vs. nonasbestiform particulates (cleavage fragments) in in vitro (cell or organ culture) models and bioassays — B.T. Mossman (2008)
• In vitro cytotoxicity and transforming potential of industrial carbon dust (fibers and particles) in syrian hamster embryo (SHE) cells — C. Darne, F. Terzetti, et al. (2010)
• Potential public health problems of asbestos in Jamaica — H.O. Reid, I.A. Kahwa (1995)

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