Molecular basis for differences in susceptibility to coal workers' pneumoconiosis

It is generally accepted that there are differences among workers in susceptibility towards the effects of mineral dusts such as silica, coal dust and asbestos. Basic research continues to find new factors involved in the process of pulmonary fibrosis caused by these minerals. In this paper, two hypotheses implicitly generated by recent findings were tested in two case-control studies among coal miners: generation of tumour necrosis factor (TNF) by blood monocytes of miners with coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP) and serum type III procollagen peptide (PIIIP) in CWP. Our data indicate that both parameters can be used as biological markers for early diagnosis of CWP. A follow-up study is described in which the predictive power of increased TNF release and serum PIIIP as risk factor to develop lung fibrosis will be assessed.