Silver nanoparticles have been widely used in medicinal and biological fields. Their biological evaluation is an important researchful field. In this paper are summarized the status quo of nano-hydroxyapatite biological evaluation at home and abroad. Although silver nanoparticles showed good biological compatibility when they were tested by contrast to ISO 10993 standards, some reports have proved that many medical devices loaded with silver could release silver ions (Ag+) which could translocate in blood circulation and cumulate in some organs such as liver and kidney. It may induce hepatotoxicity or renal toxicity and may lead to death in some situation extremely exposed to a certain dose of Ag+. The dimension of silver nanoparticles is close to silver ions and some reports have proved that they could translocate in body, so it is suggested that silver nanoparticles should induce the same toxicity with silver ions. In addition, silver nanoparticles have shown cytotoxicity in some experiment in vitro. But the mechanisms of its cytotoxity are not clear; it may attribute to the silver ions that release from silver nanoparticles or to the silver nanoparticles that permeate through cell membrane. Hence, there are some potential anxieties for the biological safety of silver nanoparticles.
Metal Nanoparticles ; toxicity ; Silver ; toxicity

Zinc oxide nanoparticle (nano-ZnO) has a size between 1 and 100 nm. Nano-ZnO has some special effects, such as small size effect, surface effect, quantum size effect, which makes it different from the ordinary ZnO, and is widely used in rubber industry, food processing, cosmetics and pharmaceutical fields. It has been reported that nano-ZnO has toxic effects in vitro and in vivo, but the mechanism of toxicity is still unclear. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the safety nano-ZnO by studying its biological toxic effects and related mechanisms. In this paper, we summarize the characterization, ingestion pathway, metabolism, systematic toxicity of nano-ZnO and its mechanisms, which may provide us with new strategy for the toxic research of nano-ZnO.
Animals ; Humans ; Metal Nanoparticles ; toxicity ; Zinc Oxide ; toxicity

Administration, Oral ; Animals ; Mice ; Nanoparticles ; toxicity ; Particle Size ; Titanium ; toxicity ; Toxicity Tests, Acute

Cobalt or chromium alloys are the most common clinical materials of prosthesis and there have been some investigators at home and abroad have done related researches about the genotoxic effects of cobalt and chromium ions and nanoparticles. People have certain understanding about the mechanism of production of ions as well as their influence on cells. However, chromium or cobalt nanoparticles genotoxicity related research is still in its preliminary stage. In each stage, the mechanisms, from creating of the particles, through entering cells, until finally causing genotoxic, are still contained many problems to be solved. This article reviews the research progress in mechanisms of production and genotoxic effects of cobalt, chromium ions and nanoparticles.
Chromium ; toxicity ; Cobalt ; toxicity ; DNA Damage ; Humans ; Ions ; Nanoparticles ; toxicity ; Prostheses and Implants

To address the controversial issue of the toxicity of dental alloys and silver nanoparticles in medical applications, an in vivo-like LO2 3-D model was constructed within polyvinylidene fluoride hollow fiber materials to mimic the microenvironment of liver tissue. The use of microscopy methods and the measurement of liver-specific functions optimized the model for best cell performances and also proved the superiority of the 3-D LO2 model when compared with the traditional monolayer model. Toxicity tests were conducted using the newly constructed model, finding that four dental castings coated with silver nanoparticles were toxic to human hepatocytes after cell viability assays. In general, the toxicity of both the castings and the coated silver nanoparticles aggravated as time increased, yet the nanoparticles attenuated the general toxicity by preventing metal ion release, especially at high concentrations.
Cells, Cultured ; Dental Casting Technique ; Hepatocytes/drug effects* ; Humans ; Metal Nanoparticles/toxicity* ; Silver/toxicity* ; Toxicity Tests

OBJECTIVES: Titanium dioxide (TiO2), a common nanoparticle widely used in industrial production, is one of nano-sized materials. The purpose of this study was to determine the acute and chronic toxicity of TiO2 using different size and various concentrations on Daphnia magna. METHODS: In the acute toxicity test, four concentrations (0, 0.5, 4, and 8 mM) for TiO2 with 250 or 500 nm and five concentrations (0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1 mM) for TiO2 with 21 nm were selected to analyze the toxic effect to three groups of ten daphnia neonates over 96 hours. In addition, to better understand their toxicity, chronic toxicity was examined over 21 days using 0, 1, and 10 mM for each type of TiO2. RESULTS: Our results showed that all organisms died before the reproduction time at a concentration of 10 mM of TiO2. In addition, the exposure of anatase (21 nm) particles were more toxic to D. magna, comparing with that of anatase (250 nm) and rutile (500 nm) particles. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicated that TiO2 had adverse impacts on the survival, growth and reproduction of D. magna after the 21days exposure. In addition, the number of test organisms that were able to reproduce neonates gradually were reduced as the size of TiO2 tested was decreased.
Daphnia ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Nanoparticles ; Reproduction ; Titanium ; Toxicity Tests, Acute

Humans ; Nanoparticles ; toxicity ; Skin ; drug effects ; Skin Absorption

OBJECTIVETo investigate the cytotoxicity and its mechanism of ZnO nanoparticles on human leukemic monocyte lymphoma cell line U937.

METHODSFour different size ZnO (10, 30, 60, 500 nm) were carefully characterized. The survival rate and viability were measured by trypan blue assay and MTT assay for each size ZnO particles at different concentrations (12, 120, 240, 600, 1200 µmol/L). The zinc probe, Fluozin-3, was used to detect the intracellular free zinc. Transmission electron microscopy was adopted to observe the cellular ultrastructure and the uptake of ZnO.

RESULTSAll four kinds of ZnO were rod shape, with a purity of > 99.9 wt%, and they were classified as zincite phase crystal and their surface areas were in accordance with the sizes. The viability (ZnO-n10: (97 ± 19)%, (91 ± 4)%, (24 ± 4)%, (15 ± 2)%; ZnO-n30: (111 ± 4)%, (81 ± 3)%, (24 ± 2)%, (27 ± 8)%; ZnO-n60: (105 ± 11)%, (73 ± 20)%, (43 ± 11)%, (28 ± 14)%; ZnO-µm: (88 ± 16)%, (62 ± 7)%, (22 ± 4)%, (13 ± 5)%) of cells exposed to ZnO decreased with the increasing of the concentration of ZnO from 12 to 600 µmol/L (r values were 0.965, 0.979, 0.998, 0.992, and the t values were 19.8, 25.3, 76.3, 40.9, respectively, P < 0.05). The liability (ZnO-n10: (98 ± 1)%, (67 ± 2)%, (59 ± 7)%, (13 ± 13)%, (5 ± 4)%; ZnO-n30: (98 ± 1)%, (97 ± 2)%, (50 ± 3)%, (20 ± 14)%, (7 ± 2)%; ZnO-n60: (97 ± 2)%, (88 ± 5)%, (48 ± 10)%, (12 ± 5)%, (4 ± 1)%; ZnO-µm: (96 ± 1)%, (76 ± 3)%, (58 ± 3)%, (19 ± 5)%, (20 ± 10)%) of cells exposed to ZnO decreased with the increasing of the concentration of ZnO from 12 to 600 µmol/L (r valued at 0.982, 0.956, 0.972, 0.980, and the t valued at 19.3, 12.1, 15.6, 18.5, respectively, P < 0.05). The increase of the zinc concentration showed by the zinc fluorescence probe was 121 ± 11, which was similar to the fluorescence of cells treated with ZnAc(2) (132 ± 14, F = 0.6, P > 0.05) at the Zn-equivalent concentration. There was no statistic difference for the percents of high zinc content cells in total cells exposed to ZnO-n30 (87.6 ± 2.6)% and these exposed to ZnAc(2) (86.9 ± 3.2)% (F = 1.5, P > 0.05).

CONCLUSIONZnO nanoparticles are highly cytotoxic to U937 cells and the solubilization of ZnO is the main toxicological mechanism.

Cell Survival ; Humans ; Monocytes ; drug effects ; ultrastructure ; Nanoparticles ; toxicity ; U937 Cells ; Zinc Oxide ; toxicity

OBJECTIVEThis paper aims to elucidate the combined toxicity of magnetite nanoparticles/Chromium [MNPs/Cr(VI)] adducts.

METHODSThe HEK293 cell was exposed to either Cr(VI) or MNPs, or their adducts MNPs/Cr(VI). The cytotoxicity was evaluated by assessing the cell viability, apoptosis, oxidative stress induction, and cellular uptake.

RESULTSThe toxicity of formed adducts is significantly reduced when compared to Cr(VI) anions. We found that the cellular uptake of MNPs/Cr(VI) adduct was rare, only few particles were endocytosed from the extracellular fluid and not accumulated in the cell nucleus. On the other hand, the Cr(VI) anions entered cells, generated oxidative stress, induced cell apoptosis, and caused cytotoxicity.

CONCLUSIONThe results showed minor effects of the nanoadducts on the tested cells and supported that magnetite nanoparticles could be implemented in the wastewater treatment process in which advantageous properties outweigh the risks.

Chromium ; chemistry ; toxicity ; Environmental Restoration and Remediation ; methods ; Ferrosoferric Oxide ; chemistry ; toxicity ; HEK293 Cells ; Humans ; Metal Nanoparticles ; chemistry ; toxicity

Two kinds of chitosan of different molecular weight (50 kDa and 400 kDa) were employed to form nanoparticles with 32P-labeled plasmid DNA at different N/P ratios by complex coacervation method. The characteristics of chitosan gene nanoparticles (CGN) were measured. The cellular uptake of DNA nanoparticles was evaluated by A10 and K562 cells. The in vitro cytotoxicity of DNA nanoparticles was determined by the MTT assays. Cellular uptake of the DNA nanoparticles increased with increasing chitosan molecular weight and N/P ratio. It also correlated with the zeta potential of the DNA nanoparticles. Chitosan-DNA nanoparticles were much less cytotoxic when compared with Lipofectamine 2000-DNA nanoparticles.
Biopolymers ; chemistry ; toxicity ; Chitosan ; chemistry ; toxicity ; Cytotoxicity Tests, Immunologic ; DNA ; chemistry ; toxicity ; Gene Transfer Techniques ; Humans ; K562 Cells ; Nanoparticles ; chemistry ; toxicity ; Plasmids ; chemistry ; toxicity