Stephan Kraemer from EDGE together with the former PhD student Martin Walter and university assistant Walter Schenkeveld investigated these reactive sites on chrysotile asbestos surfaces, in cooperation with the collegues Lars Gille and Gerald Geroldinger from VetMed Vienna and Michael Reissner from TU Vienna.
The authors identified tetrahedrally coordinated Fe on the surface of chrysotile asbestos as the only relevant site in the formation of the highly reactive and toxic hydroxyl radicals, which readily damage DNA, proteins and lipids and hence contribute to the pathogenicity of the fibers. Fe added to chrysotile fibers increased the formation of hydroxyl radicals only when it became incorporated and coordinated into tetrahedral vacancy sites on asbestos surfaces.
