The toxicity outcome of silica nanoparticles (Ludox®) is influenced by testing techniques and treatment modalities

Abstract

We analyzed the influence of the kind of cytotoxicity test and its application modality in defining the level of hazard of the in vitro exposures to nanostructures. We assessed the cytotoxicity induced by two different Ludox® silica nanoparticles (NPs), AS30 and SM30, on three human cell lines, CCD-34Lu, A549, and HT-1080. Dynamic light scattering measurements showed particle agglomeration when NPs are diluted in culture medium supplemented with fetal calf serum. We examined the impact of such particle aggregation on the cytotoxicity by exposing the cells to NPs under different treatment modalities: short incubation (2 h) in serum-free medium or long incubation (24–72 h) in serum-containing medium. Under this last modality, NP suspensions tended to form aggregates and were toxic at concentrations five- to tenfold higher than in serum-free medium. The results of cell survival varied considerably when the long-term clonogenic assay was performed to validate the data of the short-term MTS assay. Indeed, the half maximum effective concentrations (EC50) in all the three cell lines were four- to fivefold lower when calculated from the data of clonogenic assay than of MTS. Moreover, the mechanisms of NP toxicity were cell-type-specific, showing that CCD-34Lu are prone to the induction of plasma membrane damages and HT-1080 are prone to DNA double-strand break and apoptosis induction. Taken together, our results demonstrate that the choice of testing strategy and treatment conditions plays an important role in assessing the in vitro toxicity of NPs.Figure Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00216-012-6246-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Antibacterial composite cellulose fibers modified with silver nanoparticles and nanosilica

“…It seems to be very important to compare the toxicity data obtained via different methods in order to explain cell response to nanoparticles exposure (Fede et al 2012). There are many studies, however, concerning the toxicity of silver and silica nanoparticles, but the precise mechanism of interaction between living cells and silica nanoparticles, and the silver-silica nanoparticles system are still not known, requiring further investigations (Kim et al 2015;Fede et al 2012;Rabolli et al 2011;Besinis et al 2014;Schneider 2017).…”

Chronic effects of silica nanoparticles in Vibrio fischeri, Raphidocelis subcaptata, Danio rerio and Allium cepa

“…Nanoparticles, material that has between 1 to 100 nanometer, have shown special toxicity and are usually more toxic than the bulk material of larger size (DONALDSON et al, 2001). SiNP have been studied recently and extensive applications have been found for these particles, it can be used as additives to drugs, chemical industry, printer toners, cosmetics and food (FEDE et al, 2012). Although many studies have shown the cytotoxicity of silica nanoparticles (SiNP) in vitro and in vivo (NAPIERSKA et al, 2009;YE et al, 2010;LU et al, 2011;PASSAGNE et al, 2012;AHMAD et al, 2012) RODRIGUEZ, 1999).…”

“…There are numerous applications for silica nanoparticles (SiNP) and it can be used in many fields: chemical industries, biomarkers in medicine, cosmetics, paints, food and medicine (WEI et al, 2010;FEDE et al, 2012. ) .…”

“…The effects of SiNP has been studied on human cells, algae, and fishes (FEDE et al, 2012; VAN HOECKE et al, 2008;FENT et al, 2010) and SM30, respectively, were performed with distilled water. Each stock solution was then diluted with distilled water in order to obtain a serial dilution to which the seeds of the common onion species Allium cepa were exposed to.…”

“…There are numerous applications for silica nanoparticles (SiNP) and it can be used in many fields, such as chemical industries, biomarkers in medicine, cosmetics, paints, food and medicine (WEI et al, 2010;FEDE et al, 2012). Several studies have shown that these particles can cause damage to human cells (LU et al, 2011;LIN et al, 2006;EOM;CHOI, 2009;SUN et al, 2011;PASSAGNE et al, 2012), complications on pregnancy (YAMASHITA et al, 2011), inhibition of DNA replication and transcription (CHEN; VON MIKECZ, 2005), and heart and lung injury in rats (CHEN et al, 2008).…”