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The biochemical and histopathological changes induced by the exposure to iron oxide nanoparticles coated with phospholipid-based polymeric micelles (IONPs-PM) in CD-1 mice lungs were analyzed. After 2, 3, 7 and 14 days following the intravenous injection of IONPs-PM (5 and 15 mg Fe/kg bw), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity, oxidative stress parameters and the expression of Bax, Bcl-2, caspase-3 and TNF-α were evaluated in lung tissue. An increase of catalase (CAT) and glutathione reductase (GR) activities on the second day followed by a decrease on the seventh day, as well as a decline of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity on the third and seventh day were observed in treated groups vs. controls. However, all these enzymatic activities almost fully recovered on the 14th day. The reduced glutathione (GSH) and protein thiols levels decreased significantly in nanoparticles-treated groups and remained diminished during the entire experimental period; by contrast malondialdehyde (MDA) and protein carbonyls increased between the 3rd and 14th day of treatment vs. control. Relevant histopathological modifications were highlighted using Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining. In addition, major changes in the expression of apoptosis markers were observed in the first week, more pronounced for the higher dose. The injected IONPs-PM generated a dose-dependent decrease of the mouse lung capacity, which counteracted oxidative stress, thus creating circumstances for morphopathological lesions and oxidation processes.

The objective of this study is to design new hybrid silica materials as templates with hydrophobic properties, prepared at room temperature by a base catalyzed sol-gel process. As silica sources, organoalkoxysilanes functionalized with short hydrophobic chains were used: tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS), methyltriethoxysilane (MTES), vinyltriethoxysilane (VTES), octyltriethoxysilane (OTES) and isobutyltriethoxysilane (iTES). It was shown that hydrophobicity of the functionalized silica nanoparticles increased as a function of length of the aliphatic chains (MTES < iTES < OTES) or when, instead of a hydrophobic alkyl chains (substituting group of silica precursors), a monounsaturated group was used (VTES). It was observed that the samples responded in a specific way to each type (hydrophilic or hydrophobic) of the dropped liquid. Even though the experiments were limited to short hydrocarbon chains, they showed that there is a threshold to reach high hydrophobicity of the hybrid surface.