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OOF NEWYORE Mount Sinai School of Medicine * The Mount Sinai Hospital

MB) THE MOUNT SINAI MEDICAL CENTR8

  

Brookdale Center for Molecular Biology

April 17, 1988

Dr. Joshua Lederberg
President

The Rockefeller University
1230 York Avenue

New York, NY 10021

Dear Dr. Lederberg:

Thank you for conveying your willingness to submit our
manuscript, entitled “Asbestos Fibers Mediate Transformation of
Monkey Cells by Exogenous Plasmid DNA," by J.D. Appel, T.M. Fasy,
D.S. Kohtz, J.D. Kohtz and E.M. Johnson, for consideration for
publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences.

This manuscript documents, for the first time, the ability
of asbestos to introduce exogenous DNA into cells in a state
functional for both DNA replication and gene expression. There
is currently no cogent mechanism relating asbestos-induced
oncogenesis to changes in gene expression, let alone oncogene
expression, at the level of DNA alteration. Although we do not
claim that our results explain all aspects of asbestos
oncogenesis, we do believe that they offer a promising new
direction for molecular biological studies not only of asbestos,
but of certain other mineral particulates as well.

We respect your prerogative to send this manuscript to any
reviewer, but we request that Dr. J. Carl Barrett of the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences not be asked to review
it. We believe that his opinion of our work could reflect his
vigorous espousal of an alternate hypothesis for asbestos
carcinogenesis.
The following Mount Sinai scientists have reviewed our
manuscript:

Fred Gilbert, M.D. (a molecular biologist and
cytogeneticist); Ming-Ta Hsu, Ph.D. (an expert in DNA replication
and electron microscopic studies of DNA); Francis I. Smith, Ph.D.
(a molecular biologist); Irving J. Selikoff, M.D. (a noted expert
in asbestos carcinogenesis); Arthur M. Langer, Ph.D. (an asbestos
minerologist); Yasunosuke Suzuki, M.D. (an experimental
pathologist with numerous contributions to asbestos research) ;
and Ronald E. Gordon, Ph.D. (a cell biologist-electron
microscopist investigating lung injury).

Thank you very much for your attention to this manuscript.
We hope to hear from you soon.

2) Ode

“
dn. ja on, Ph.D.
Professor,
Brookdale Center for Molecular
Biology and Department of
Pathology, Mount Sinai School of
Medicine
Adjunct Professor,
The Rockefeller University