The blood beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test (BeLPT) is an in vitro measure of the beryllium antigen-specific cell-mediated immune response. This response to beryllium is now understood to play a central role in the immunopathogenesis of chronic beryllium disease (CBD). Although there remain some unresolved methodologic issues with testing, the blood BeLPT has already undergone sufficient ...

Chronic beryllium disease (CBD) is characterized by a CD4+ T cell alveolitis and granulomatous inflammation in the lung. Genetic susceptibility to this disease has been linked with HLA-DP alleles, particularly those possessing a glutamic acid at position 69 (Glu69) of the beta-chain. However, 15% of CBD patients do not possess a Glu69-containing HLA-DP allele, suggesting that other MHC class II...

We investigate the vibrational shift of beryllium oxide (BeO) in Xe matrix as well as in Ar matrix environments by mixed quantum-classical simulation and examine the origin of spectral shift in details. BeO is known to form strong chemical complex with single rare gas atom, and it is predicted from the gas phase calculations that vibrational frequencies are blueshifted by 78 cm(-1) and 80 cm(-1...

Hypersensitivity to beryllium (Be) is found in 1-16% of exposed workers undergoing immunological screening for beryllium disease using the beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test (BeLPT). However, only approximately 50% of BeLPT-positive workers present with lung granulomas (i.e. berylliosis). As berylliosis is associated with the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DP supratypic marker DPGlu69, the ...

The potential hazards from exposure to beryllium or beryllium compounds in the workplace were first reported in the 1930s. The tritiated thymidine beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test (BeLPT) is an in vitro blood test that is widely used to screen beryllium exposed workers in the nuclear industry for sensitivity to beryllium. Newman [18] has discussed the clinical significance of the BeLPT a...

Beryllium-7 is a cosmogenic radionuclide produced in the atmosphere through the spallation of nitrogen and oxygen nuclei by cosmic-ray-produced neutrons and protons. It is carried in the atmosphere attached to aerosols and is deposited on land and ocean surfaces by wet and dry deposition processes. Beryllium-7 decays by electron capture to lithium-7 and has a half-life of approximately 53 days....

Beryllium, tungsten and carbon are planned as wall-cladding materials for the future international tokamak ITER. Be and W will be the dominant components and therefore the formation of binary Be-W alloys under plasma action is one of the most important issues in plasma-wall interaction processes at the first wall. This paper proposes a first-principles density functional theory (DFT) study of b...