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Objective: To investigate the influence of salt mine medium from the Romanian Cacica and Dej Salt Mines upon the cell morphology and electrophoretic expression of pulmonary fibroblasts in vitro obtained from Wistar rats' lung, in normal and Ovalbumin challenged "asthmatic" conditions. Materials and methods: Pulmonary fibroblasts cultures were prepared from Wistar rat lung. Cultures derived from lung rat develop with a monolayer of fibroblasts attached to the culture dish. Before cultures initiation, Wistar rats of 75-100 g weight were divided in two lots: control and ovalbumin challenged animals. Ten animals of each lot were send to Cacica and Dej Salt Mine for 14 days and maintained in the salt mine medium, as in speleotherapy treatment. Results: Speleotherapy of Wistar rats had induced significant differences in cell morphology and electrophoretic expression of primary pulmonary fibroblasts cultures. The data obtained support the protective effects of speleotherapy by comparing with ovalbumin sensibilised animals. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate the fact that speleotherapy induces changes on the morphology and protein expression of pulmonary fibroblasts in vitro, and these changes support the beneficial effects of speleotherapy.

Objective: To investigate the influence of salt mine medium from the Turda Salt Mine upon the cell morphology and electrophoretic expression of pulmonary fibroblasts in vitro obtained from Wistar rats' lung, in normal and Ovalbumin challenged-"asthmatic" conditions. Materials and methods: Pulmonary fibroblasts cultures were prepared from Wistar rat lung. Cultures derived from lung rat develop with a monolayer of fibroblasts attached to the culture dish. Before cultures initiation, Wistar rats of 75-100 g weight were divided in two lots: control and ovalbumin challenged animals. Five animals of each lot were send to Turda Salt Mine for 14 days and maintained in the salt mine medium, as in speleotherapy treatment. Results: Speleotherapy of Wistar rats had induced significant differences in cell morphology and electrophoretic expression of primary pulmonary fibroblasts cultures. The data obtained support the protective effects of speleotherapy by comparing with ovalbumin sensibilised animals. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate the fact that speleotherapy induces changes on the morphology and protein expression of pulmonary fibroblasts in vitro, and these changes support the therapeutical properties of Turda Salt Mine medium.

The capitalization of salt mines through tourism, for visits and speleotherapy is a widely spread phenomenon in Romania. The international experience in the field shows that there are many successful models in this field: a successful model for the great number of tourists who come annually but also a successful model for the very good results in the treatment of some respiratory diseases, using as therapeutic natural factor the subterranean environment of the salt mine. Romania, a country with tradition in salt exploitation, has a lot of salt mines with mining activity interrupted completely or just partially in some sectors, which can be planned for a modern, European and sustainable tourism so that they can be introduced in the tourist route. The Cacica salt mine, situated in an area of great tourist value, has a non-capitalized tourist potential and a salt subterranean environment with potential therapeutic qualities. Inside a multidisciplinary approach, the proposed planning works can turn this attraction into a complex tourist product, attractive, which will diversify the offer of the area.

Speleotherapy-a special kind of climatotherapy, uses the certain conditions of caves and salt mines to cure several diseases, especially respiratory and skin diseases. Atmospheric dust could cause allergic reactions or asthmatic attacks.The cave air is very low on dust. This fact reduces any kind of irritation. In this way, the symptoms of the diseases are reduced or eliminated completely, while the patient is in the cave. But that does not explain how it should have a longer lasting effect. Curing asthma involves spending 2-3 hours a day underground in subterranean caves or salt mines over a 1-2 month period. An old study describes a speleotherapy course, which was 4 hours a day for 6-8 weeks, with 100 COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and asthma patients and reported improvement that lasted 6 months to 7 years (Skulimowski, 1965). Our objectives were to explore the effects of speleotherapy on cellular morphology and physiology of pulmonary and dermal fibroblasts obtained from tissues of Wistar rats, in normal and Ovalbumin challenged, "asthmatic" conditions. 60 Wistar rats of 75-100 g weight were divided in two lots: control and ovalbumin challenged animals. Ten animals of each lot were send to Cacica, Turda and Dej Salt Mine for 14 days and maintained in the salt mine medium, as in speleotherapy treatment. Pulmonary and dermal fibroblasts cultures were prepared from Wistar rat lung and respectively dermal tissue. Trying to identify the biological mechanisms of speleotherapy, our experimental design was made for cell morphology, physiology and biochemical evaluation of cells in cultures obtained from animals that were treated by speleotherapy. The complex picture of results was analysed and explained through biological mechanisms comparing to the control cell cultures obtained from healthy, untreated Wistar rats. In this article we describe the supposed biological mechanisms that explain the protective effects of speleotherapy. Conclusion: Speleotherapy induces changes on the morphology and protein expression of pulmonary and dermal fibroblasts in vitro, and these changes-by comparing with ovalbumin sensitised animals, supports the beneficial effects of speleotherapy.