IMPACT OF NANOPARTICLES AND CARBON NANOTUBES ON RESPIRATORY HEALTH: STUDIES IN RATS AND RELEVANCE OF FINDINGS FOR HUMANS

摘要

Toxicology studies in rats demonstrate that ultrafine particles (generally defined as particles in the size range <100 nm) administered to the lung cause a greater inflammatory response when compared to larger particles of identical chemical composition at equivalent mass concentrations. Surface properties (surface chemistry-surface area) appear to play an important role in ultrafine particle toxicity. Contributing to the effects of ultrafine particles is their very high size-specific deposition when inhaled as singlet ultrafine particles rather than as aggregated particles. Some evidence suggests that inhaled ultrafine particles, after deposition in the lung, largely escape alveolar macrophage surveillance and gain access to the pulmonary interstitium, a vulnerable anatomical compartment. This talk will focus on what is currently known about the potential pulmonary hazards of nanoparticles in rats, some intriguing differences reported between the effects of inhaled nanoparticles in rats vs. larger mammalian species (including humans), and the results from our pulmonary bioassay toxicity studies with single wall nanotubes.