Inorganic Particulates in Human Lung: Relationship to the Inflammatory Response
William S. Lynn in Inflammatory Cells and Lung Disease, 2019
An interesting phenomenon which has been noted in animals exposed to a number of types of fibrous dusts is formation of an iron coating to produce what is called a ferruginous body.71 The coating, which consists of iron, protein, and mucopolysaccharide material, is deposited on the surface of the fiber in vivo by alveolar macrophages.72, 73 Studies with experimental animals74 and with alveolar macrophages in vitro65 have shown that coated asbestos fibers (asbestos bodies) are far less fibrogenic and cytotoxic than uncoated asbestos fibers. Microanalytical and microdiffraction studies have shown that the vast majority of “ferruginous” bodies isolated from humans (Figure 4) are nucleated on an asbestos core fiber,24, 50, 75 and that longer fibers (> 20 µ in length) have the greatest tendency to become coated.76
Intracellular and Extracellular Structures
Philip T. Cagle, Timothy C. Allen, Mary Beth Beasley in Diagnostic Pulmonary Pathology, 2008
All ferruginous bodies consist of a core mineral surrounded by layers of glycoprotein and hemosiderin and appear golden-yellow on hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stain. These layers are furnished over the core mineral by macrophages. The specific ferruginous body is named after the type of mineral within the core. Ferruginous bodies may be identified either on H&E or Prussian blue stains. Siderosis represents deposition of iron on fragmented elastin fibers and can sometimes be confused with ferruginous bodies.
Tissue burden evaluation of elongated mineral particles in two individuals with mesothelioma and whose work history included manufacturing tile
Published in Ultrastructural Pathology, 2020
Samples from a wedge of each MCE filter were mounted on a glass slide, cleared using acetone vapor and then scanned by light microscopy at 200x-400x in an American Optical (AO) light microscope. If a structure was noted that met the previously described definition of a “classical ferruginous body,” the structure was considered to be an “asbestos body”23 with the numbers of those seen being used to calculate the number of ferruginous bodies per gram of deparaffinized wet weight for that sample of tissue.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Asbestos
- Asbestosis
- Ferritin
- Hemosiderin
- Histopathology
- Interstitial Lung Disease
- Pulmonary Alveolus
- Macrophage
- H&E Stain