Publication Date:
2014-11-01
Description:
ABSTRACT Metal-based nanoparticles (NPs), are currently used in many application fields including consumer products, pharmaceuticals, and biomedical treatments. In spite to their wide applications, an in-depth study of their potential toxic effects is still lacking. The aim of the present research was to investigate the potential initiator or promoter-like activity of different metallic NPs such as gold, iron, cobalt, and cerium using the Balb/3T3 two-stage transformation assay. The results indicated that all the selected metallic NPs, except for cobalt, when used as initiators did not induce any transformation in Balb/3T3 cell line. Moreover, Au and Fe 3 O 4 NPs, when used in place of the tumor promoter treatment TPA, increased significantly the number of Foci/dish as compared to the MCA treatment alone. The number of Foci/dish was 2.6 for Au NPs and 2.13 for Fe 3 O 4 ones, similar to those obtained by the positive control treatment (MCA + TPA), whereas 1.27 for MCA treatment alone. On the contrary, CeO 2 NPs did not show any difference in the number of Foci/dish, as compared to MCA alone, but it decreased the number of foci by 65% in comparison to the positive control (MCA + TPA). As expected, cobalt NPs showed an increased cytotoxicity and only a few surviving cells were found at the time of analysis showing a number of Foci/dish of 0.13. For the first time, our data clearly showed that Au and Fe 3 O 4 NPs act as promoters in the two stage transformational assay, suggesting the importance to fully investigate the NPs carcinogenic potential with different models. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol, 2014.
Print ISSN:
1520-4081
Electronic ISSN:
1522-7278
Topics:
Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
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