Zymosan-induced chemiluminescence of alveolar macrophages: depression by inorganic dust constituents.

A method has been developed which allows the incubation of alveolar macrophages as weakly affixed monolayers in siliconized glass dishes. Without vigorous mechanical agitation and without using proteolytic enzymes, these cells were subsequently transferred to cuvettes where the zymosan-stimulated chemiluminescence of the suspended cells was measured. In vitro incubations of activated rabbit alveolar macrophage monolayers with airborne dusts from four West German sites (1 to 200 micrograms/10(6) cells), fly ash fractions of a special waste incinerator at Hamburg (50 to 1,000 micrograms/10(6) cells), and quartz dust DQ 12 (5 to 200 micrograms/10(6) cells) resulted in a dose- dependent depression of the zymosan-stimulated chemiluminescence. The depression of chemiluminescence was correlated with particle numbers, estimated dust surface, and antimony and lead masses of the dusts to which the cells were exposed. Cytotoxicity was better correlated with these parameters than with dust mass.