Immunotoxic effects of gold and silver nanoparticles: Inhibition of mitogen-induced proliferative responses and viability of human and murine lymphocytesin vitro

Abstract

Understanding the effects of nanoparticles (NP) on immune cell functions is essential in designing safe and effective NP-based in vivo drug delivery systems. The immunomodulatory potential of gold nanoparticles (GNP) and silver nanoparticles (SNP) was investigated in vitro using murine splenic and human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) in terms of effects on viability and mitogen-induced proliferation. Hydrodynamic size and number of NP were characterized using NP tracking analysis (NTA); modal diameters of GNP and SNP were 28 (±1.5) and 66 (± 2.7) nm, respectively, with a unimodal distribution. Lymphocytes were incubated with GNP or SNP in the presence/absence of B-or T-cell mitogens and proliferative responses then determined using [3 H]-thymidine incorporation. Concanavalin A (T-cell-specific) and lipopolysaccharide-(B-cell-specific) stimulated responses of murine splenic lymphocytes, as well as phytohemagglutinin (T-cell-specific) and pokeweed mitogen-(B-and T-cell specific) induced responses of human lymphocytes, were significantly inhibited by GNP (25-200 lg/ml) and SNP (12.5-50 lg/ml). However, [3 H]-thymidine incorporation by unstimulated lymphocytes was unaffected in the presence of GNP or SNP. Viability of lymphocytes was determined using trypan blue dye exclusion and was significantly inhibited only at 200 lg GNP/ml and 25 or 50 lg SNP/ml. As mitogen responses are most useful to provide supportive mechanistic information on primary immunotoxicologic functional observations, and so far more comprehensive data (in vivo and in vitro) is still needed, the results nevertheless suggest to us that GNP and SNP might potentially be able to modulate immune responses by impacting on lymphocyte activation. ARTICLE HISTORY

Tannic Acid-Modified Silver and Gold Nanoparticles as Novel Stimulators of Dendritic Cells Activation

“…Interestingly, TA-Ag/AuNPs added directly to T cell cultures, had no effect upon proliferation of activated T cells, except for 10 nm AgNPs. This is in contrast to the results of work by Devanabanda et al, where gold and silver sized 30 and 60 nm significantly affected concanavalin A stimulated responses of murine splenic lymphocytes ( 58 ). However, concentrations used in this study were approximately 10 times lower.…”

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Immunotoxicity Considerations for Next Generation Cancer Nanomedicines

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