In vitro toxicity of different-sized ZnO nanoparticles in Caco-2 cells

Abstract

There has been rapid growth in nanotechnology in both the public and private sectors worldwide, but concern about nanosafety exists. To assess size-dependent cytotoxicity on human cancer cells, we studied the cytotoxic effect of three kinds of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) on human epithelial colorectal adenocarcinoma (Caco-2) cells. Nanoparticles were first characterized by size, distribution, and intensity. Multiple assays have been adopted to measure the cell activity and oxidative stress. The cytotoxicity of ZnO NPs was time dependent and dose dependent. The 24-h exposure was chosen to confirm the viability and accessibility of the cells and taken as the appropriate time for the following test system. The IC50 value was found at a low concentration. The oxidative stress elicited a significant reduction in glutathione with increase in reactive oxygen species and lactate dehydrogenase. The toxicity resulted in a deletion of cells in the G1 phase and an accumulation of cells in the S and G2/M phases. One type of metallic oxide (ZnO) exerted different cytotoxic effects according to different particle sizes. Data from the previous experiments showed that 26-nm ZnO NPs appeared to have the highest toxicity to Caco-2 cells. The study demonstrated the toxicity of ZnO NPs to Caco-2 cells and the impact of particle size, which could be useful in the medical applications.

Zinc oxide nanoparticle-coated films: fabrication, characterization, and antibacterial properties

“…However, Kang et al found that cytotoxicity exhibited doseand time-dependent effects for ZnO NPs. It was observed the cell activity is significant different between the concentration of 0.0125 and 0.050 g/L for 24 h against Caco-2 cells (Kang Guan et al 2013). Sharma et al found that ZnO NPs (0.008-0.02 g/L) can reduce the human epidermal cell (A431) viability for 24 and 48 h in a concentration and time dependent manner (Sharma, Shukla et al 2009).…”

Advanced in vitro systems for efficacy and toxicity testing in nanomedicine

“…These discrepancies could derive from the loss of functions that secondary cell cultures must inevitably encounter, due to genomic alterations or as a result of repeated passages in culture, which is likely to select cells with a particular culture-conditioned biochemical phenotype. However, it should be noted that, a correlation between the response obtained by using primary and immortalised cells has been observed in some situations, including studies testing NPs with a well-known grade of cytotoxic activity, i.e., Ag NPs and Zn NPs (68)(69)(70)(71)(72)(73)(74).…”

Histological Changes of MaleWestarRats liver Following the Ingestion of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles With special Emphasis on the Histochemical Alterations

“…ZnO nanoparticles produce cytotoxic effects in numerous kinds of cells, including osteoblast cancer cells, human bronchial epithelial cells, kidney cells, alveolar adenocarcinoma cells, hepatocytes, and embryonic kidney cells; furthermore, the nanoparticles' effects may be related to particle size and dosage [18,19].…”