ROS-mediated genotoxicity of asbestos-cement in mammalian lung cells in vitro

Elke Dopp¹ , Santosh Yadav² , Furquan Ahmad Ansari² , Kunal Bhattacharya¹^,2 , Ursula von Recklinghausen¹ , Ursula Rauen³ , Klaus Rödelsperger⁴ , Behnaz Shokouhi¹ , Stefan Geh¹ and Qamar Rahman²

¹Institute of Hygiene and Occupational Medicine, University Hospital Essen, Germany

²Fibre Toxicology Division, Industrial Toxicology Research Centre, Lucknow, India

³Institute of Physiological Chemistry, University Hospital Essen, Germany

⁴Institute of Occupational Medicine, University Hospital Giessen, Germany

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Particle and Fibre Toxicology 2005, 2:9doi:10.1186/1743-8977-2-9


Published:	6 October 2005

Abstract

Asbestos is a known carcinogen and co-carcinogen. It is a persisting risk in our daily life due to its use in building material as asbestos-cement powder. The present study done on V79-cells (Chinese hamster lung cells) demonstrates the cytotoxic and genotoxic potential of asbestos-cement powder (ACP) in comparison with chrysotile asbestos. A co-exposure of chrysotile and ACP was tested using the cell viability test and the micronucleus assay. The kinetochore analysis had been used to analyse the pathway causing such genotoxic effects. Thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances were determined as evidence for the production of reactive oxygen species. Both, asbestos cement as well as chrysotile formed micronuclei and induced loss of cell viability in a concentration- and time- dependent way. Results of TBARS analysis and iron chelator experiments showed induction of free radicals in ACP- and chrysotile exposed cultures. CaSO₄appeared to be a negligible entity in enhancing the toxic potential of ACP. The co-exposure of both, ACP and chrysotile, showed an additive effect in enhancing the toxicity. The overall study suggests that asbestos-cement is cytotoxic as well as genotoxic in vitro. In comparison to chrysotile the magnitude of the toxicity was less, but co-exposure increased the toxicity of both.