Assessment of the short‐term toxicity of TiO₂ nanofiber in Sprague Dawley rats

Abstract

Synthetic nanomaterials have many unique chemical and physical properties, mainly due to their high specific surface area and quantum confinement effect. Specifically, titanium dioxide (TiO ) nanomaterial has high stability, anticorrosive, and photocatalytic properties. However, there are concerns over adverse biological effects resulting from bioeffects. This study was to investigate adverse effects associated with acute ingestion of TiO nanofiber (TDNF). TDNF was fabricated via electrospinning method, followed by dissolution in water. Six- to seven-week-old male Sprague Dawley rats were exposed to a total of 0, 40, and 60 ppm of TDNF for 2 weeks via oral gavage. Serum total protein and weight gain during the course of this study displayed marginal concentration-dependent alterations. These findings were followed by a global gene expression analysis to identify which transcripts might be responsive to TNDF toxicity. Differentially expressed mRNA levels were dose-dependently higher in animals exposed to TNDF. The majority of the affected genes were biochemically involved in immune response and inflammation. We believe this is due to the fact that TNDF is unable to penetrate the cell and forms phagocytosis sites that trigger inflammatory and immune response. All results taken together, short-term ingestion of TNDF produced marginal effects indicative of inflammation. Finally, the broad gene expression data were validated through quantification of immunoglobulin heavy chain alpha (Igha). Igha gene was upregulated in treated groups, showing similar expression patterns to the global gene expression data.

Nanoparticle drug delivery systems: an excellent carrier for tumor peptide vaccines

“…However, we need to pay attention to the drug adverse effect of nano drug by extreme immune response. Leading allergy, mast cell degranulation or other adverse effect, some NPs, like titanium dioxide nanofiber (Gato et al., 2017 ), silica NPs (Marquardt et al., 2017 ) and silver NPs (Alsaleh et al., 2016 ), are widely researched for a better usage.…”

Length-dependent toxicity of TiO2 nanofibers: mitigation via shortening

“…Short nanobelts have been described to exert milder toxic effects than longer ones (Hamilton et al, 2009, Porter et al, 2013. Recently, some information on the effects of TiO 2 nanofibers after oral administration in vivo has been also provided (Gato et al, 2017, indicating that mild renal and hepatic toxicity is detected along with an increased expression of genes involved in immunity and inflammation, although these studies did not assess the relationship between fiber length and biological effects. We have recently characterized the toxic properties of TiO 2 nanofibers of industrial origin (Allegri et al, 2016a), finding that, at in vitro doses (10 g/cm 2 ) corresponding to high, but plausible, human equivalent exposures (29.3 mg/m 3 ), a significant cytotoxic effect was detected in murine macrophages.…”

Adverse Outcome Pathways Associated with the Ingestion of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles—A Systematic Review

“…One study using low TiO 2 concentrations (~2 mg/kg/bw) found no significant disturbance of the function or structure of the intestine, liver, spleen, lungs, or testis [139]. After rodent oral exposure to TiO 2 -NPs, inflammatory reactions with tissue morphological or functional changes were observed in several organs, including spleen [36,112], liver [56,58,60,72,77,78,94,140,142,143,148,[157][158][159] (with increased serum glucose and insulin resistance, or fibrosis and increased serum levels of liver enzymes), lung [160,161], kidney [145,151] (altered urea, creatinine and uric acid levels), heart (with changes in heart rate and systolic blood pressure) [144], testis [114,149], brain [150], stomach [146,162], and transfer of TiO 2 -NPs to offspring via breast milk [111].…”