Role of surface charge and oxidative stress in cytotoxicity of organic monolayer-coated silicon nanoparticles towards macrophage NR8383 cells

摘要

BackgroundSurface charge and oxidative stress are often hypothesized to be important factors in cytotoxicity of nanoparticles. However, the role of these factors is not well understood. Hence, the aim of this study was to systematically investigate the role of surface charge, oxidative stress and possible involvement of mitochondria in the production of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) upon exposure of rat macrophage NR8383 cells to silicon nanoparticles. For this aim highly monodisperse (size 1.6 ± 0.2 nm) and well-characterized Si core nanoparticles (Si NP) were used with a surface charge that depends on the specific covalently bound organic monolayers: positively charged Si NP-NH2, neutral Si NP-N3 and negatively charged Si NP-COOH.