OBJECTIVES To review the scientific literature on the health effects of refractory ceramic fibres (RCFs). The adverse effects of exposure to asbestos has led to concern about the potential for other fibrous materials to cause diseases. For this reason the human populations most heavily exposed to synthetic mineral fibres have been examined for any adverse effects and many types of fibre have be...

Introduction My PhD research focuses on the social context of cloth from the Neolithic to Bronze Age with case studies from the Alpine area. One aspect of this is the interrelationship of the technologies used to create flexible, thin sheets of material that can be wrapped, folded, shaped and tied. This includes fibre-based cloth such as textiles, netting and twining as well as animal skins (le...

Experimental animal models are frequently used to study articular cartilage, but the relevance to man remains problematic. In this study animal models were compared by examination of the collagen fibre arrangement in the medial tibial plateau of human, cow, pig, dog, sheep, rabbit and rat specimens. 24 cartilage samples from each species were prepared and maximum cartilage thickness in the cent...

Duchenne muscular dystrophy, one of the most common lethal genetic disorders, is caused by mutations in the DMD gene and a lack of dystrophin protein. In most DMD patients and animal models, sporadic dystrophin-positive muscle fibres, called revertant fibres (RFs), are observed in otherwise dystrophin-negative backgrounds. RFs are thought to arise from skeletal muscle precursor cells and clonal...

Amphisbaenians are legless reptiles that differ significantly from other vertebrate lineages. Most species dig underground galleries of similar diameter to that of the animal. We studied the muscle physiology and morphological attributes of digging effort in the Brazilian amphisbaenid Leposternon microcephalum (Squamata; Amphisbaenia), which burrows by compressing soil against the upper wall of...

An extensive study has been made of the optomotor system in Carcinus by Horridge with various collaborators (Barnes & Horridge, 1969a, b; Burrows & Horridge, 1968a-c; Horridge, 1966a-e, 1968; Horridge & Burrows, I968a-c; Horridge & Sandeman, 1964). In these investigations many features were discovered by the use of various and ingenious techniques. The reason for the present paper and its seque...

The importance of dietary fibre fractions in animal feeding is due to its influence on the rate of passage, mucosal functionality and its role as substrate for gut microbiota that relates to performance and digestive health. The complexity of the physical structure and chemical composition of polysaccharides in plant cell walls explains the wide and different physiological effects of this large...

The classification of muscle fibres is of particular interest for the study of the skeletal muscle properties in a wide range of scientific fields, especially animal phenotyping. It is therefore important to define a reliable method for classifying fibre types. The aim of this study was to establish a simplified method for the immunohistochemical classification of fibres in mouse. To carry it o...

The pathogenesis of asbestos-related lung diseases is complicated and still poorly understood. Studies on animal models and cell cultures have indicated that asbestos fibres generate reactive oxygen and nitrogen species and cause oxidation and/or nitrosylation of proteins and deoxyribonucleic acid as a marker of cell injury. These effects are potentiated by the inflammation caused by the fibres...