Faculty Bibliography

Extracts of organic matter from samples of airborne particulate matter have been shown to possess components capable of transforming mammalian cells. This study was done to determine if Balbc/3T3 cells exposed to extracts of air samples could, unlike their normal counterparts, in the absence of a surface for attachment, divide on agar to form aggregates, and if these cells would demonstrate a dose-response phenomenon. Untreated and solvent treated control cells failed to form large aggregates and showed a decline in viable cell number over a 6-day period. Cells treated with either cyclohexane or acetone extracts of airborne particulate matter showed a dose-response increase in cell number along with the formation of progressively larger aggregates, findings similar to those seen with the positive, benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), control. Furthermore, these findings are in direct agreement with those in the simultaneously performed standard cell transformation assay which required 21 days to perform. Results show that survival in aggregate form is a rapid in vitro test system capable of detecting potentially carcinogenic activity in complex environmental mixtures

In this preliminary study, the authors have found cytotoxic complement-dependent synovial antibodies in the serum of patients undergoing prosthesis implantation; these were particularly evident in those patients undergoing revision surgery. In order to demonstrate the synovial antibodies, it was necessary that the authors modify the method they had previously used in their studies of cytotoxic lung and kidney antibodies. While conventional trypsinization dispersion produced synovial target cells that would not react in the test system, mechanical dispersion successfully produced target cells sensitive to complement-dependent cytotoxic antibodies. In this study, synovial antibodies reacted similarly to cells derived from the synovium of different individuals, but they did not react to cells derived from tissues other than synovium. This tissue specificity was confirmed by absorption studies that indicated the synovial antibodies to be organ specific. Whether these cytotoxic synovial antibodies can be predictive of the impending loss of an artificial prosthesis, or somehow be directly involved in the failure mechanism of that prosthesis, will require additional studies