Bloise Andrea, Giorno Eugenia, Miriello Domenico, Godbert Nicolas
Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende (CS), Italy.
University Museum System-SiMU, Section of Mineralogy and Petrography, University of Calabria, 87036 Arcavacata di Rende (CS), Italy.
Nanomaterials (Basel). 2023 Apr 7;13(8):1303. doi: 10.3390/nano13081303.
Asbestos fibers act as complex crystal-chemical reservoirs susceptible of releasing potentially toxic elements (such as ions impurities) into the lung cellular environment during permanency and dissolution. To comprehend the exact pathological mechanisms that are triggered upon inhalation of asbestos fibers, in vitro studies on possible interactions between the mineral and the biological system have been carried out mostly by using natural asbestos. However, this latter comprises intrinsic impurities such as Fe/Fe and Ni ions, and other eventual traces of metallic pathogens. Furthermore, often, natural asbestos is characterized by the co-presence of several mineral phases, fiber dimensions of which are randomly distributed in width and in length. For these reasons, it is albeit challenging to precisely identify toxicity factors and to define the accurate role of each factor in the overall pathogenesis of asbestos. In this regard, the availability of synthetic asbestos fibers with accurate chemical composition and specific dimensions for in vitro screening tests would represent the perfect tool to correlate asbestos toxicity to its chemico-physical features. Herein, to palliate such drawbacks of natural asbestos, well-defined Ni-doped tremolite fibers were chemically synthesized in order to offer biologists adequate samples for testing the specific role of Ni in asbestos toxicity. The experimental conditions (temperature, pressure, reaction time and water amount) were optimized to produce batches of asbestos fibers of the tremolite phase, with uniformly distributed shape and dimensions and a controlled content of Ni metal ions.
石棉纤维作为复杂的晶体化学储存库，在其持久存在和溶解过程中，易于向肺细胞环境释放潜在有毒元素（如离子杂质）。为了理解吸入石棉纤维后引发的确切病理机制，关于该矿物质与生物系统之间可能相互作用的体外研究大多使用天然石棉进行。然而，天然石棉含有诸如铁/铁和镍离子等固有杂质，以及其他可能存在的微量金属病原体。此外，天然石棉通常具有多种矿物相共存的特征，其纤维尺寸在宽度和长度上随机分布。由于这些原因，精确识别毒性因素并确定每个因素在石棉整体发病机制中的准确作用具有挑战性。在这方面，具有精确化学成分和特定尺寸的合成石棉纤维可用于体外筛选试验，这将是将石棉毒性与其化学物理特性相关联的理想工具。在此，为了缓解天然石棉的这些缺点，化学合成了明确的镍掺杂透辉石纤维，以便为生物学家提供足够的样本，用于测试镍在石棉毒性中的特定作用。对实验条件（温度、压力、反应时间和水量）进行了优化，以生产出透辉石相的石棉纤维批次，其形状和尺寸均匀分布，镍金属离子含量可控。
