The occupational biorepository in medical surveillance and research studies of formerly asbestos-exposed workers

Background. For workers who had been exposed to asbestos, the pathological effects might show up after a latency of decades. In this case, the medical surveillance might include periodic exams, to be performed early. However, the scarce knowledge of the mechanisms of pathogenicity, the lack of early pre-clinical markers and therapeutic treatments are pitfalls for the management of asbestos-related diseases. Scientific data come from workers with established disease and are difficult to gain due to the low prevalence of the disease. These features make not feasible a short-term follow-up study. Methods. Hundreds of workers having had previous occupational exposure to asbestos, recruited for long-term medical surveillance, are donating blood and urine to our Biorepository, for research purposes: 8 ml whole blood for serum (4 ml); 20 ml blood-EDTA to get plasma (4 ml), gDNA (50 µg) and PBMCs (5.0-10.0 x 106); 18 ml blood for mRNA (5-10 µg); and 8 ml urine. Samples are stored at -80°C, except for the cells (N2). Biospecimens are handled according to the OECD guidelines. gDNA and mRNA are checked for recovery and quality. The viability of the thawed cells is tested by measuring cell growth upon mitogen stimulation. Results. The Biorepository includes specimens electronically tracked and associated to corresponding clinical, laboratory and research databases. Discussion. The Biorepository set up in Chieti represents a tool for the study of (sub-clinical) asbestos-related effects allowing the search of unknown predictive markers of pathology and therapeutic targets, also by mean of techniques that will be available in the future.