Home
Resources
Publications
Development of an in Vitro Screening Method for Safety Evaluation of Nanomaterials

Development of an in Vitro Screening Method for Safety Evaluation of Nanomaterials

Atsuko Matsuoka, Agneta Onfelt, Yoshie Matsuda, Ryusuke Nakaoka, Yuji Haishima, Masako Yudasaka, Sumio Iijima, Toshie Tsuchiya

Biomed Mater Eng. 2009;19(1):19-27.

PMID: 19458442

Abstract:

To evaluate the role of particle size in cytotoxicity tests of nanomaterials (NMs), we exposed Chinese hamster cells to polystyrene (PS) spheres with defined diameters ranging from 0.1 to 9.2 microm. We found that the 4.45-microm PS particles were most cytotoxic while sizes 0.1 and 0.2 microm showed no cytotoxicity up to 1000 microg/ml. In the chromosome aberration test, the 4.45-microm PS particles induced polyploidy in a mass concentration-dependent manner in 24- and 48-h treatments. The 5.26-microm PS particles induced polyploidy only at 1000 microg/ml for 48 h. Next, we performed the cytotoxicity test with as-grown single walled carbon nanohorns (NHas). These were suspended in DMSO and then transferred into the culture medium followed by sonication. Six suspensions differently sonicated showed the same apparent toxicity, although the total particle size distributions differed. However, the sizes of NHas particles predicted to be most toxic from the experiments with PS particles, i.e. 1.01-4.47 microm constituted 40-60% of all particles in all six suspensions. The results suggest that the cytotoxicity of NMs in suspension depends on specific sizes of aggregates and therefore suspensions should be checked with regard to particle size distributions in assays of toxic effects. The uptake of particles into cells was confirmed by confocal microscopy.

Chemicals Related in the Paper:

Catalog Number	Product Name	Structure	CAS Number	Price
LS76101	Carbon nanohorns, as-grown			Price

As a specialist in analytical chemical Products, Alfa Chemistry offers consumers a wealth of raw materials and a full range of technologies and services.

QUICK LINKS

HEADQUARTERS

Tel:

Fax:

Email: