Iron oxide nanoparticles with engineered physical and biochemical properties are finding a rapidly increasing number of biomedical applications. However, a wide variety of safety concerns, especially those related to oral exposure, still needs to be addressed in order to reach the clinical practice. Here, we report on the effects of chronic oral exposure to low dose 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 2 reveal that oral administration of iron oxide nanoparticles is a safe route for drug delivery at low nanoparticle doses.