Mineralogical analyses of clinical samples have been proved useful to identify causal relationship between exposure to airborne particles and pulmonary diseases. The most striking example is asbestosis where the assessment of asbestos bodies in patient lung samples has allowed defining values specific of pathologies. However, this type of analyses only considers the micro-sized fraction of the particles, neglecting the specific impact of nano-sized particles which have been otherwise shown to be reactive and able to induce biological effects. Similarly, in nanotoxicology, the mineralogical analysis of pulmonary fluids could be used as an indicator of exposure to inhaled nanoparticles and could help investigations on the relationship between exposure to these nanoparticles and lung diseases. We designed this study first to demonstrate the technical feasibility of this approach, then to get a clear picture of the metals present, and in what form, in patient lungs and finally to determine if indeed it is worth investigating separately the micro, sub-micro and nano fractions. Broncho-alveolar lavages were recovered from 100 patients suffering from interstitial lung diseases. A protocol was specifically developed to isolate three fractions containing respectively microparticles, sub-microparticles and nanoparticles with ions. The metal content in each fraction was qualitatively and quantitatively characterized. Results showed significant differences between the three fractions in terms of metal load confirming that the separate analysis of the fractions is relevant. It also means that the assessment of the micro-sized fraction alone, as commonly done in clinical practice, only gives a partial view of the mineralogical analysis.

中文翻译：

---

评估患者肺灌洗液中的金属负荷：进行包括纳米级成分在内的全面矿物学分析

临床样品的矿物学分析已被证明有助于确定暴露于空气中的颗粒物与肺部疾病之间的因果关系。最明显的例子是石棉沉滞症，其中对患者肺部样本中石棉体的评估已允许定义特定于病理的值。然而，这种类型的分析仅考虑了微粒的微小部分，而忽略了纳米大小的微粒的特殊影响，否则这种微粒已被证明具有反应性并能够引起生物效应。同样，在纳米毒理学中，肺液的矿物学分析可以用作暴露于吸入纳米颗粒的指标，并有助于调查这些纳米颗粒的暴露与肺部疾病之间的关系。我们设计这项研究的目的是首先证明这种方法的技术可行性，然后才能清楚地了解患者肺部中存在的金属以及以哪种形式存在，并最终确定是否值得单独研究微量，亚微量和纳米级分数。从100名患有间质性肺疾病的患者中回收了支气管肺泡灌洗液。专门开发了一种协议，以分离包含离子的三个部分，分别包含微粒，亚微粒和纳米颗粒。定性和定量地表征每个馏分中的金属含量。结果显示，就金属负载而言，这三个馏分之间存在显着差异，这证实了对馏分的单独分析是相关的。这也意味着仅对微小部分进行评估，