Antibacterial and Cytotoxic Effect of Magnesium Oxide Nanoparticles on Bacterial and Human Cells

摘要

Magnesium oxide (MgO) is a versatile biomaterial, with wide applications in materials science and biomedical diagnostics. However, the toxicity of nanoparticles of MgO to bacterial/human cells and organs remains fairly undiscovered. In this paper, magnesium oxide nanoparticles of ～30 nm size were synthesized by sol-gel method. Structural and morphological characterization of MgO nanoparticles were carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and high resolution-transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) techniques. The antibacterial properties of synthesized MgO nanoparticles were investigated using Vibrio Cholerae bacterial system where significant inhibition of bacterial growth is noticed. The cytotoxic assay of MgO nanoparticles were examined using human intestinal cell lines (INT 407) and human cervical cancer cell lines (SiHa) using MTT assay in the range of 0-350 μg/ml. No significant cytotoxicity was found in INT 407 (Human intestinal cell) as well as SiHa (cancerous cell) at the lower concentrations (below 300 μg/ml). However, once the concentration of MgO nanoparticles was increased to above 300 μg/ml, the relative growth rate was lower than the control in cancerous cells. Present study indicates possible use of MgO nanoparticles for anti-cancer activities.