Multinucleation and pro-inflammatory cytokine release promoted by fibrous fluoro-edenite in lung epithelial A549 cells (original) (raw)

An unusual cluster of malignant mesothelioma was evidenced in Biancavilla, a Sicily village where no inhabitant had been signiWcantly and professionally exposed to asbestos. Mineralogical and environmental studies led to the identiWcation of a new prismatic amphibole, named Xuoro-edenite. We previously reported, by using the human lung epithelial A549 cells, that prismatic Xuoro-edenite was unable to induce changes that could be somehow related to cellular transformation, and this was in accordance with studies carried out in vivo. More recently, a Wbrous amphibole with a composition very similar to that of prismatic Xuoro-edenite, was identiWed in Biancavilla. This Wbrous Xuoro-edenite was shown to induce mesothelioma in rats. In keeping with this eVect in vivo, in the present work we observed multinucleation and spreading, common features of transformed cells, as well as pro-inXammatory cytokine release in A549 cells. Such cell changes occurred without interfering with the passage of the resulting multinucleated cells through the cell cycle and without condemning cells to death. Hence, in lung epithelial cells, Wbrous Xuoro-edenite behaved similarly to the unrelated asbestos type crocidolite, whose connection with severe inXammation and cancer of the lung is renowned.