摘要：Many asbestiform minerals exhibit temperature-dependent thermoluminescence. Since thermoluminescence involves electronic transitions within crystalline materials, the effect of temperature on asbestos cytotoxicity was evaluated. Heat pretreatment of Canadian chrysotile asbestos reduces its cytotoxicity towards cultured human fibroblasts and bovine alveolar macrophages. When monitored 44 hr after the addition of either 200 degrees C or 400 degrees C heat-pretreated asbestos, alveolar macrophage viability was approximately 40% higher than comparable amounts of unheated asbestos. Similarly, asbestos toxicity, expressed as fibroblast growth inhibition, was inversely related to the asbestos pretreatment temperature in the following manner, 70 degrees C greater than 200 degrees C greater than 400 degrees C = unexposed fibroblast controls. Pretreatment of chrysotile asbestos to 400 degrees C reduced its adsorptive capacity for bovine serum albumin by 25%. Furthermore, asbestos heated to 200 degrees C followed by irradiation with 4 MeV X-rays (4500 rads) resulted in reactivation of asbestos cytotoxicity. Scanning electron microscopy indicated that the ratios of free to fiber-associated alveolar macrophages and the fiber fragment size distributions were unaffected by either heat pretreatment or X-ray irradiation. These observations strongly suggest that the surface charge characteristics and electronic state of asbestos fibers may be responsible for its biological activity. Full text Full text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version. Get a printable copy (PDF file) of the complete article (5.1M), or click on a page image below to browse page by page. Links to PubMed are also available for Selected References . 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368
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