Organic dust toxic syndrome (ODTS) is associated with inhalation of high concentrations of organic materials and is a noninfectious illness characterized by fever, malaise, myalgia, and neutrophilic inflammation of the lower respiratory tract. Studies in our laboratory of fungi in fresh lumber have demonstrated that yeasts may predominate and have raised the issue of potential exposure of sawmill workers to yeasts. Zymosan, a cell wall preparation from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is a potent stimulator of alveolar macrophages (AM). In the present study, preparations from the cell walls of Pichia fabianii, Candida sake, Trichosporon capitatum, Rhodotorula glutinis, and Cryptococcus laurentii were compared with zymosan and ss- 1-->3-glucan for their ability to stimulate AM and activate complement. All species activated complement. P. fabianii, C. sake, T. capitatum, R. glutinis, C. laurentii, as well as zymosan and glucan, stimulated superoxide anion and leukotriene B4 production in a dose-dependent fashion, but R. glutinis and C. laurentii were much less active. Zymosan, glucan, P. fabianii, and R. glutinis treatment of AM resulted in increased phagocytosis of labeled sheep RBCs, whereas there was no effect with C. sake or C. laurentii and T. capitatum significantly inhibiting phagocytosis. These results suggest that exposure to high concentrations of yeast could provoke pulmonary inflammation resulting in an episode of ODTS.
WG Sorenson, Division of Respiratory Disease Studies, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, NIOSH/DRDS, 1095 Willowdale Road, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.