The relation between growth of four microbes on six different plasterboards and biological activity of spores

Abstract

Microbial growth on water-damaged building materials is commonly associated with adverse health effects in the occupants. We examined the growth of Stachybotrys chartarum, Aspergillus versicolor, Penicillium spinulosum, and Streptomyces californicus, isolated from water-damaged buildings, on six dif- ferent brands of plasterboards. The microbial growth was compared with the biological activity of the spores, that is the potential to induce cytotoxicity and proinflammatory mediators in RAW264.7 macrophages. These results showed that the microbial growth on plasterboard depended on both the microbial strain and the brand of plasterboard used. The biological activity of spores appeared to be regulated by different growth conditions on plasterboards so that good microbial growth was associated with a low bioactivity of the spores, whereas the spores collected from plasterboard supporting only weak growth usually were biologically active. Cytotoxicity of either S. chartarum or A. versicolor did not correlate with any particular growth conditions or induced inflammatory responses. Instead, there were positive correlations between cytotoxicity and levels of induced proinflammatory cytokines for P. spinulosum and S. californicus. These data suggest that both the microbial growth on plaster- board and the resulting bioactivity of spores vary and might be affected by changing the growth conditions provided by the plasterboards. T. Murtoniemi, M.-R. Hirvonen, A. Nevalainen, M. Suutari National Public Health Institute, Division of Environmental Health, Kuopio, Finland

Part of CIRS Nexus · Curated by Lauren Lowenstein, The Biotoxin Lady

Symptom Clusters