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Is There a Trojan-Horse Effect during Magnetic Nanoparticles and Metalloid Cocontamination of Human Dermal Fibroblasts?
Link to Journal Abstract
This study investigates the issue of nanoparticles/pollutants cocontamination. By combining viability assays, physicochemical and structural analysis (to probe the As speciation and valence), we assessed how ?Fe2O3 nanoparticles can affect the cytotoxicity, the intra- and extracellular speciation of As(III). Human dermal fibroblasts were contaminated with ?Fe2O3 nanoparticles and As(III) considering two scenarios: (i) a simultaneous coinjection of the nanoparticles and As, and (ii) an injection of the nanoparticles after 24 h of As adsorption in water. In both scenarios, we did not notice significant changes on the nanoparticles surface charge (zeta potential ?–10 mV) nor hydrodynamic diameters (950 nm) after 24 h. We demonstrated that the coinjection of ?Fe2O3 nanoparticles and As in the cellular media strongly affects the complexation of the intracellular As with thiol groups. This significantly increases at low doses the cytotoxicity of the As nonadsorbed at the surface of the nanoparticles. However, once As is adsorbed at the surface the desorption is very weak in the culture medium. This fraction of As strongly adsorbed at the surface is significantly less cytotoxic than As itself. On the basis of our data and the thermodynamics, we demonstrated that any disturbance of the biotransformation mechanisms by the nanoparticles (i.e., surface complexation of thiol groups with the iron atoms) is likely to be responsible for the increase of the As adverse effects at low doses.
This study investigates the issue of nanoparticles/pollutants cocontamination. By combining viability assays, physicochemical and structural analysis (to probe the As speciation and valence), the authors assessed how gamma-Fe2O3 nanoparticles can affect the cytotoxicity, the intra- and extracellular speciation of As(III).
Peer Reviewed Journal Article
Exposure Or Hazard Target
Method Of Study
Environmental Fate and Transport
Risk Exposure Group
Environ. Sci. Technol., 2012, 46(19): 10789-10796
Environmental Science & Technology
Auffan M, Rose J, Proux O, Masion A, Liu W, Benameur L, Ziarelli F, Botta A, Chaneac C, Bottero JY
Last updated on October 17, 2012
This work is supported in part by the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Initiative of the National Science Foundation
under NSF Award Number EEC-0118007.
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