Composition of Coal Dusts and Their Cytotoxicity on Alveolar Macrophages

摘要

Coal mine dust is produced from complex materials which consist of organic sedimentary phases, inorganic minerals, and trace elements. The dust varies in its chemical compositions and is capable of causing lung injury when inhaled. The purpose of this study was to perform scanning electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive spectrometry, wavelength dispersive spectrometry and X-ray diffraction analyses of three coal dusts and examine their effects on rat lung alveolar macrophages (AM) in cell culture. The coal dusts were obtained from coal surfaces of anthracite, meager and fat coal mines. AM were harvested by bronchoalveloar lavage from adult male Wistar rats and were cultured in Egle's medium at 37 deg C. Prostaglandin E_2 (PGE_2) and lactate dehydrogenase (LD) released by cultured AM were measured by radioimmunoassay and enzymatic method respectively 24 hours after addition of coal dust.