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Dose assessment of SiC nanoparticle dispersions during in vitro assays

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Abstract

Here, we show that key physicochemical parameters of commercial Silicon Carbide nanoparticles, such as the primary particles of about 53 nm in size, the agglomerates size, and the surface composition, are considerably modified with respect to the pristine conditions, during in vitro assessment. The use of sample conditioning stages, such as the pre-dispersion in aqueous media and the subsequent dispersion in a culture medium specific to the in vitro assay, produce modifications as the absorption of N, C, and O, from the culture medium, in the nanoparticles surface. Our results show that the sedimented dose, fraction of sedimented NPs during incubation and consequently in contact with cells seeded at the bottom, of Silicon Carbide nanoparticles can be measured from the particle size distribution obtained using a centrifugal liquid sedimentation technique. It is underlined that the variations observed in the physicochemical properties are related to the in vitro assay conditions. Culture medium and incubation time are found to influence the most the sedimented dose and consequently the cells dose uptake.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the “Direction Générale des Technologies de la Recherche et de l’Energie” (DGTRE) of the Walloon Region of Belgium (Nanotoxico Project, RW/FUNDP research convention No. 516252). O. Toussaint is a Research Associate of the Belgian FRS/FNRS. The authors acknowledge financial support from the European Union under the Framework 7 program, Qnano (INFRASTRUCTURE-2010-1-262163).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Centre for the Physics of Matter and Radiation (LARN-PMR) NARILIS, University of Namur, Rue de Bruxelles 61, 5000, Namur, Belgium

    Jorge Mejia & Stéphane Lucas

  2. Research Unit in Cellular Biology (URBC) NARILIS, University of Namur, Rue de Bruxelles 61, 5000, Namur, Belgium

    Jean-Pascal Piret, Florence Noël & Olivier Toussaint

  3. Department of Pharmacy NAMEDIC, Namur Thrombosis and Homeostasis Center (NTHC) NARILIS, University of Namur, Rue de Bruxelles 61, 5000, Namur, Belgium

    Bernard Masereel

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  1. Jorge Mejia
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Correspondence to Jorge Mejia.

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Mejia, J., Piret, JP., Noël, F. et al. Dose assessment of SiC nanoparticle dispersions during in vitro assays. J Nanopart Res 15, 1875 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-013-1875-z

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