Toxicity of cell culture medium due to filtration through asbestos pads

Our plain-English summary of Toxicity of cell culture medium due to filtration through asbestos pads, by W. House (Nature, 1964).

The study

• Author: W. House
• Journal: Nature
• Published: 1964;201:1242
• Cited by: 8 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This 1964 letter reported a laboratory experiment on cultured cells, not people. The author grew a hamster fibroblast cell line (C13, from BHK21) in Eagle's medium that had been sterilized by filtration through standard asbestos compound pads. Cell health was measured as cloning efficiency, the percentage of cells forming colonies after 7 days. Medium from the first 500 ml filtered gave a cloning efficiency of 2.0%, against 19.0% for the sixth, later sample. The effect decreased over the next 1,000 ml and then stayed constant. Adding some of the first sample to the sixth lowered its efficiency to 7.8%, while equivalent dilution with 0.9 per cent sodium chloride did not (18.2%). The author took this to indicate a toxic factor from the pad. Filtered calf serum gave similar results, pads from three manufacturers all showed toxic activity, and the nature of the toxic factor was unknown. Medium passed through cellulose membrane filters, including the first 200 ml, gave 18 to 19%. The author concluded it was preferable to omit asbestos-type filters from tissue culture medium preparation.

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 cell culture experiment (short letter)
• Who was studied: Cultured hamster fibroblast cells (clone C13 from the BHK21 cell line); no humans or animals were studied
• Exposure: Cell culture medium (Eagle's medium) and calf serum sterilized by filtration through standard asbestos compound pads, compared with cellulose membrane filters; fiber type not stated
• Main results:
  • The first 500 ml (5 per cent) of medium filtered through asbestos pads markedly reduced cell cloning efficiency, with the effect decreasing over the next 1,000 ml (15 per cent) and then remaining constant
  • Cloning efficiency was 2.0% with the first 500 ml filtrate sample
  • Cloning efficiency was 19.0% with the sixth (2,500 ml) filtrate sample
  • Adding medium from the first sample to the sixth sample affected it, but equivalent dilution with 0.9 per cent sodium chloride did not
  • In the mixing test, the sixth sample with 10 per cent of the first sample gave a cloning efficiency of 7.8% (621 colonies)
  • In the mixing test, the sixth sample diluted with 10 per cent of 0.9 per cent sodium chloride gave a cloning efficiency of 18.2% (1,453 colonies)
  • Similar results were obtained when calf serum was filtered
  • Asbestos compound pads from three different manufacturers were tested, and all showed toxic activity
  • Medium filtered through cellulose membrane filters gave a cloning efficiency of between 18 and 19 per cent in every sample, including the first 200 ml
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that a toxic factor from the asbestos pad was responsible for the reduced cloning efficiency, and that it was preferable to omit asbestos-type filters from all stages of tissue culture medium preparation and, where possible, to use cellulose membrane filters instead
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author stated that the nature of the toxic factor was unknown

Related studies

• The effect of asbestos on tissue cultures; a comparative study with quartz and coal dust — T.H. Belt, I. Friedmann, et al. (1947)
• Inhibition of virus growth by a toxic factor from asbestos pad and cellulose acetate membrane filters — F. Brown, B. Cartwright, et al. (1965)
• A method of treating asbestos filter pads for virus filtration — N.S. Hyslop (1961)
• Cytotoxic action of mineral dusts on CHV 79 cells in vitro: factors affecting toxicity — S.O. Lock, M. Chamberlain (1983)
• Detection of 8-oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine, a marker of oxidative DNA damage, in culture medium from human mesothelial cells exposed to crocidolite asbestos — Q. Chen, J. Marsh, et al. (1996)
• Death and lysis of leptospirae when cultured in asbestos-filtered growth media — H.C. Ellinghausen (1973)

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