Assessing In Vitro Cytotoxicity of Engineered Metal Oxide Nanoparticles with a Systematic Approach

摘要

Engineered metal oxide nanoparticles have been used as the ingredients in various consumer products and remediation agents. Consider the potential hazards affiliated with ENM exposure, it may appear to be a paradox in their intended application for protecting the human health. Consequently, it is vital to predict possible environmental impact of new nanomaterials before their mass production and application. In the present study, we adopted a systematic approach to investigate the correlation between selected physicochemical parameters and the in vitro cytotoxicity of the test engineered metal oxide nanoparticles by using E. coli (ATCC#25254) and a human lymphocyte cell line. Based on experimental testing with E. coli, a nano quantitative structure-activity relationship (NanoQSAR) model describing cytotoxicity of 17 nano-sized metal oxides to bacteria Escherichia coli (R2=0.85, Q2 CV=0.77, Q2 EXT=0.83, RMSEC=0.20, RMSECV=0.24, RMSEp=0.19) was developed. In our cell line study, the dependence of cytotoxicity on particle size and surface coating of iron oxide (IO) nanoparticles was investigated by using the A3 human T lymphocyte. Two different sizes (10 nm and 50 nm) and two different surface coatings (amine and carboxyl groups) of IO nanoparticles were tested with fluorescein diacetate (FDA) assay and WST-1 assay. The results of both the 24-h FDA and WST-1 assays indicate that in terms of mass concentration IO nanoparticles of the smaller size and with the carboxyl group are more toxic.