National Research Council, Institute of Nanotechnology (CNR-Nanotec), Rome, Italy.
Centre for the Study of Asbestos and Other Toxic Particulate, University of Torino, Turin, Italy.
Environ Geochem Health. 2023 Jul;45(7):5039-5051. doi: 10.1007/s10653-023-01557-0. Epub 2023 Apr 14.
Asbestos bodies (AB) form in the lungs as a result of a biomineralization process initiated by the alveolar macrophages in the attempt to remove asbestos. During this process, organic and inorganic material deposit on the foreign fibers forming a Fe-rich coating. The AB start to form in months, thus quickly becoming the actual interface between asbestos and the lung tissue. Therefore, revealing their composition, and, in particular, the chemical form of Fe, which is the major component of the AB, is essential to assess their possible role in the pathogenesis of asbestos-related diseases. In this work we report the result of the first x-ray diffraction measurements performed on single AB embedded in the lung tissue samples of former asbestos plant workers. The combination with x-ray absorption spectroscopy data allowed to unambiguously reveal that Fe is present in the AB in the form of two Fe-oxy(hydroxides): ferrihydrite and goethite. The presence of goethite, which can be explained in terms of the transformation of ferrihydrite (a metastable phase) due to the acidic conditions induced by the alveolar macrophages in their attempt to phagocytose the fibers, has toxicological implications that are discussed in the paper.
石棉体（AB）是在肺泡巨噬细胞试图清除石棉的生物矿化过程中在肺部形成的。在这个过程中，有机和无机物质沉积在纤维上，形成富含铁的涂层。AB 会在几个月内开始形成，因此很快成为石棉和肺组织之间的实际界面。因此，揭示它们的组成，特别是 AB 中主要成分铁的化学形态，对于评估它们在石棉相关疾病发病机制中的可能作用至关重要。在这项工作中，我们报告了首次对嵌入前石棉厂工人肺部组织样本中的单个 AB 进行的 X 射线衍射测量的结果。与 X 射线吸收光谱数据的结合，能够明确揭示出 AB 中存在两种铁的氧（氢）化物：水铁矿和针铁矿。针铁矿的存在可以用铁水化物（一种亚稳相）的转化来解释，这是由于肺泡巨噬细胞在试图吞噬纤维时产生的酸性条件所致，这具有毒理学意义，本文对此进行了讨论。
