Letter to the Editor

摘要

As shown in the paper itself, clumps of nanotubes were injected that were hundreds of microns in diameter. These would never have reached the part of the lung where macrophage phagocytosis, a key factor in determining fibre pathogenicity, would have occurred. To determine a long fibre effect (i.e. frustrated phagocytosis) the minimum requirement is that the fibres would be presented in a form thin enough to allow phagocytosis to be initiated. When this is the case, length becomes the important factor in dictating whether failed phagocytosis can occur, as for example with long thin crocidolite fibres. Undoubtedly frustrated phagocytosis would have occurred with the nanotube 'clumps' but this is not testing whether nanotubes caused mesothelioma in the way that asbestos fibres do. This seems a fatal flaw in the study.