The Chemiluminescent Response from Human Monocyte-Derived Macrophages Exposed to Various Mineral Fibers of Different Sizes

The aims of the present work were to quantify ability to induce lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescence (CL) from 6-9 day-old human monocyte-derived macrophages exposed to various mineral fibers, and to examine the relationship between ability to induce CL and fiber size. All fiber samples induced the CL response from the cells. The relationship between the number of fibers administered and the CL response was examined on all fiber samples by linear regression. The slope of the regression line supplies an approximation of the ability to induce CL. A strong increased correlation between geometric-mean length of fibers and ability to induce CL was observed for the seven fiber samples more than 6 µm in length (r=0.9895). Geometric-mean width and the ability to induce CL showed no correlation. However, among the two fiber samples having a similar length distribution (RF2, RF3), the wider width sample (RF3, 2.4 µm) demonstrated lower ability to induce the CL than the narrower width sample (RF2, 1.1 µm). The present method enabled comparison of ability to induce lucigenin-dependent CL from human monocyte-derived macrophages for various mineral fibers with different sizes. Our findings suggested the possibility that ability to induce O 2 - production increased with fiber length, when fibers are longer than approximately 6 µm.