Production of reactive oxygen intermediates by human macrophages exposed to soot particles and asbestos fibers and increase in NF-kappa B p50/p105 mRNA.

Alveolar macrophages (AM) play a decisive role in the immunologic defense system of the lung and in inflammatory pulmonary pathomechanisms. AM and blood monocytes (BM) were exposed to chrysotile B, soot FR 101, and Printex 90 (P 90). We evaluated the reactive oxygen intermediate (ROI) release of AM and BM after particle exposure. ROI release was measured by chemiluminescence. Thirty-minute exposure caused a significant (up to 2.5-fold) increase in ROI release of AM (100 micrograms/10(6) cells) compared with control experiments (p0.01). Identical exposure conditions for BM resulted in a similar reaction pattern (maximum 2.2-fold increase in ROI release; p0.05). After a 90-min particle exposu…