Developmental toxicity of engineered nanoparticles

A perspective on the developmental toxicity of inhaled nanoparticles

“…If this is indeed the case, it could be argued that the observation of release of inflammatory mediators in acute and sub-acute inhalation studies in the first tier would trigger repeated dose toxicity studies that investigate the effects of nanomaterial exposure on reproductive organs and the developing fetus. This is all the more relevant, as both reproductive function and fetal development is indeed sensitive to oxidative stress and inflammation [8,12,13,82,83].…”

“…If this developmental programming does not match the conditions in postnatal life, physiological dysregulation may arise and affect health later in life [80]. Taking into account that low grade chronic inflammation is a leading mechanism of several disorders in adult humans [81], it might not be surprising that maternal inflammation (along with oxidative stress) may interfere with fetal development and alter organ function in the offspring later in life [8,12,13,[82][83][84]. This could be viewed as an aspect of fetal adaptation to the inflammatory environment of the mother.…”

“…For particles to reach the fetus, they need first to translocate at the portal of entry, in this case from the lung to the systemic circulation, and then to traverse the additional barrier of the placenta [7]. However, particles may not need to reach the fetus to affect development [8]. Many particles elicit inflammation and oxidative stress in the lungs [9][10][11].…”

“…The lack of knowledge and attention to this area is all the more alarming as the few published studies within this field do actually indicate that maternal exposure to NMs may be able to adversely affect pregnancy, interfere with fetal development, and have consequences for the offspring later in life (reviewed in [4,8,16]). That potential developmental toxicity has received little attention seems particularly odd in the view of emerging recognition of health effects by exposure to ambient air pollution and the role that ultrafine particles (i.e., particles with dimensions toward the nanoscale) may play [17][18][19][20].…”

Maternal Exposure to Particulate Air Pollution and Engineered Nanoparticles: Reproductive and Developmental Effects

“…However, a numerically large fraction of the particulates in diesel exhaust is ultrafine in size, and the particulate fraction may be important for toxicity (Hougaard et al, 2008). Adverse effects of prenatal exposure to engineered nanoparticles in vitro and in vivo have been summarized by (Ema et al, 2010;Hougaard et al, 2011). The effects observed in animals include altered immune response, development of the nervous system and reproductive function (Fedulov et al, 2008;Lamoureux et al, 2010;Shimizu et al, 2009;Takahashi et al, 2010;Takeda et al, 2009;Yoshida et al, 2009;Yoshida et al, 2010).…”