Speakers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- Matthew Dahm – CNT/F exposure assessment
- Aaron Erdely – Occupational exposure and immune effects
- Mary K. Schubauer-Berigan – Cross-sectional evaluation of CNT/F workers
The study objective was to evaluate the association between carbon nanotube and nanofiber (CNT/F) exposure and ex vivo responses of whole blood challenged with secondary stimulants in a cross-sectional study of 102 workers.
Multi-day exposure was measured by CNT/F structure count (SC) and elemental carbon (EC) air concentrations. Whole blood collected from each participant was incubated with and without two microbial stimulants (lipopolysaccharide/LPS and staphylococcal enterotoxin type B/SEB) using TruCulture technology to evaluate immune cell activity.
The stimulant:null response ratio for each individual protein was analyzed using multiple linear regression, followed by principal component (PC) analysis to determine whether patterns of protein response were related to CNT/F exposure.
CNT/F exposure metrics were significantly inversely associated with stimulant:null ratios of several individual biomarkers as well as PC1 and PC2, illustrating a reduced immune response. This approach may present a relatively sensitive method to evaluate human response to CNT/F or other occupational exposures.
