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In vitro toxicological nanoparticle studies under flow exposure

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Abstract

The use of nanoparticles is becoming increasingly common in industry and everyday objects. Thus, extensive risk management concerning the potential health risk of nanoparticles is important. Currently, in vitro nanoparticle testing is mainly performed under static culture conditions without any shear stress. However, shear stress is an important biomechanical parameter. Therefore, in this study, a defined physiological flow to different mammalian cell lines such as A549 cells and NIH-3T3 cells has been applied. The effects of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2-NP), respectively, were investigated under both static and dynamic conditions. Cell viability, cell morphology, and adhesion were proven and compared to the static cell culture. Flow exposure had an impact on the cellular morphology of the cells. NIH-3T3 cells were elongated in the direction of flow and A549 cells exhibited vesicles inside the cells. Zinc oxide nanoparticles reduced the cell viability in the static and in the dynamic culture; however, the dynamic cultures were more sensitive. In the static culture and in the dynamic culture, TiO2-NP did not affect cell viability. In conclusion, dynamic culture conditions are important for further in vitro investigations and provide more relevant results than static culture conditions.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the European Regional Development Fund (EFRE Project “Nanokomp”, Grant No.: 60421066). Detlef Bahnemann kindly acknowledges support by the project “Establishment of the Laboratory of Photoactive Nanocomposites Materials” (No. 14.750.31.0016) supported by a Grant from the Government of the Russian Federation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Technical Chemistry, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hanover, Callinstr. 5, 30167, Hanover, Germany

    Franziska Sambale, Frank Stahl, Detlef Bahnemann & Thomas Scheper

  2. Laboratory “Photoactive Nanocomposite Materials”, Saint-Petersburg State University, Ulyanovskaya Str. 1, Peterhof, Saint-Petersburg, 198504, Russia

    Detlef Bahnemann

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  1. Franziska Sambale
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  2. Frank Stahl
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Correspondence to Franziska Sambale.

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Sambale, F., Stahl, F., Bahnemann, D. et al. In vitro toxicological nanoparticle studies under flow exposure. J Nanopart Res 17, 298 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-015-3106-2

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