28 January 2008

Pig Brain Aerosols

Workers at a meat packing plant whose job was to blow the brains out of pig heads with compressed air have developed what seems to be an inflammatory brain disease. It is likely in this case that the mechanism is immunological. Our brains are antigenic, but as long as we keep them in our head they do not stimulate the immune system. If brain is given by an immunizing route (injected, inhaled) it may stimulate an immune response, when then crosses into the intact brain and attacks it. A typical reference to the brain incident: here

Do you think the man's popcorn problem is also immunological?
Posted by at

1 comment:

VanD495 said...

In response to Dr. Cohen's question:
I do believe that the popcorn workers' lung condition is immunologically-related. Bronchiolitis obliterans is a result of airway obstruction when the bronchioles become inflamed and heal via scarring. The result is a reduction in lung capacity (down to 16--21%). Inflammation occurs as a result of an immune response of the body to protect itself; the diacetyl must have triggered the body's immune cells to rid of the toxin when it recognized the heated vapor as being harmful. Through attempted repair (inflammation & scarring), it causes permanent lung damage. If there was a detailed signal mechanism on how the whole process worked, it would definitely help our reasoning!

31 January, 2008 23:17

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)