Differential susceptibility of human pleural and peritoneal mesothelial cells to asbestos exposure

We hypothesize that the observed differences in incidences of pleural and peritoneal malignant mesothelioma (MM) are the result of differences in the direct response of these cell types to asbestos rather than to differences mediated by the in vivo microenvironment. To test this hypothesis, we characterized cellular responses to asbestos in a controlled environment using high-throughput RNA sequence and other assays. Examination of asbestos-treated versus untreated mesothelial cells from four cell lines representing two tissue types in culture.