Abstract
Although a number of manufactured nanoparticles are applied for the medical and clinical purposes, the understanding of interaction between nanomaterials and biological systems are still insufficient. Using nematode Caenorhabditis elegans model organism, we here investigated the in vivo toxicity or safety of hydroxylated fullerene nanoparticles known to detoxify anti-cancer drug-induced oxidative damages in mammals. The survival ratio of C. elegans rapidly decreased by the uptake of nanoparticles from their L4 larval stage with resulting in shortened lifespan (20d). Both reproduction rate and body size of C. elegans were also reduced after exposure to 100μgmL-1 of fullerol. We found ectopic cell corpses caused by apoptotic cell death in the adult worms grown with fullerol nanoparticles. By the mutation of core pro-apoptotic regulator genes, ced-3 and ced-4, these nanoparticle-induced cell death were significantly suppressed, and the viability of animals consequently increased despite of nanoparticle uptake. The apoptosis-mediated toxicity of nanoparticles particularly led to the disorder of digestion system in the animals containing a large number of undigested foods in their intestine. These results demonstrated that the water-soluble fullerol nanoparticles widely used in medicinal applications have a potential for inducing apoptotic cell death in multicellular organisms despite of their antioxidative detoxifying property.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 49-54 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Chemosphere |
Volume | 87 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2012 Mar |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Apoptosis
- Caenorhabditis elegans
- Fullerene
- Fullerol
- Nanoparticle
- Toxicity
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Environmental Engineering
- Environmental Chemistry
- Chemistry(all)
- Pollution
- Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis