Effect of general dietary deficiency and protein malnutrition on the fibrogenesis caused by silica dust in rats.

Zaidi, S. H., and Kaw, J. L. (1970). Brit. J. industr. Med., 27, 250-259. Effect of general dietary deficiency and protein malnutrition on the fibrogenesis caused by silica dust in rats. In order to determine whether the dietary deficiency, which may occur in miners in India, is likely to influence their response to silica dust, two experiments were carried out on rats. In both experiments rats were exposed to silica dust by intratracheal inoculation of saline suspension, the dose being sufficient to cause marked fibrosis in normal rats. In the first experiment rats were fed on a multiple deficient diet and in the second on a diet grossly deficient in protein but otherwise adequate. Although these diets caused other evidence of dietary deficiency, in neither group was there any difference in the extent of silicotic fibrosis as assessed by histological or biochemical methods.