Wang Bing, Feng Wei-Yue, Wang Tian-Cheng, Jia Guang, Wang Meng, Shi Jun-Wen, Zhang Fang, Zhao Yu-Liang, Chai Zhi-Fang
Laboratory for Bio-Environmental Health Sciences of Nanoscale Materials and Key Laboratory of Nuclear Analytical Techniques, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Toxicol Lett. 2006 Feb 20;161(2):115-23. doi: 10.1016/j.toxlet.2005.08.007. Epub 2005 Sep 13.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the acute toxicity of oral exposure to nanoscale zinc powder in mice. The healthy adult male and female mice were gastro-intestinally administered at a dose of 5 g/kg body weight with two size particles, nanoscale zinc (N-Zn) and microscale zinc (M-Zn) powder, while one group mice treated with sodium carboxy methyl cellulose was used as the control. The symptoms and mortality after zinc powder treatment were recorded. The effects of particles on the blood-element, the serum biochemical level and the blood coagulation were studied after 2 weeks of administration. The organs were collected for histopathological examination. The N-Zn treated mice showed more severe symptoms of lethargy, vomiting and diarrhea in the beginning days than the M-Zn mice. Deaths of two mice occurred in the N-Zn group after the first week of treatment. The mortalities were confirmed by intestinal obstruction of the nanoscale zinc aggregation. The biochemical liver function tests of serum showed significantly elevated ALT, AST, ALP, and LDH in the M-Zn mice and ALT, ALP, and LDH in the N-Zn mice compared with the controls (P<0.05), which indicated that the liver damage was probably induced by both micro- and nano-scale zinc powders. The clinical changes were observed in the two treated group mice as well. The levels of the above enzymes were generally higher in the M-Zn mice than in the N-Zn mice, which implied that M-Zn powder could induce more severe liver damage than N-Zn. The biochemical renal function tests of serum BUN and CR in the M-Zn mice markedly increased either compared with the N-Zn mice or with the controls (P<0.05), but no significant difference was found between the N-Zn and the control mice. However, severe renal lesions were found by the renal histopathological examination in the N-Zn exposed mice. Therefore, we concluded that severe renal damage could occur in the N-Zn treated mice, though no significant change of blood biochemical levels occurred. Blood-element test showed that in the N-Zn mice, PLT and RDW-CV significantly increased, and HGB and HCT significantly decreased compared to the controls, which indicated that N-Zn powder could cause severe anemia. Besides the pathological lesions in the liver, renal, and heart tissue, only slight stomach and intestinal inflammation was found in all the zinc treated mice, without significant pathological changes in other organs.
本研究的目的是评估小鼠经口暴露于纳米级锌粉的急性毒性。将健康成年雄性和雌性小鼠以5 g/kg体重的剂量经胃肠道给予两种粒径的颗粒，即纳米级锌（N-Zn）和微米级锌（M-Zn）粉，同时将一组用羧甲基纤维素钠处理的小鼠作为对照。记录锌粉处理后的症状和死亡率。给药2周后研究颗粒对血液成分、血清生化水平和血液凝固的影响。收集器官进行组织病理学检查。在开始的几天里，N-Zn处理的小鼠比M-Zn处理的小鼠表现出更严重的嗜睡、呕吐和腹泻症状。治疗第一周后，N-Zn组有两只小鼠死亡。死亡原因经纳米级锌聚集导致肠梗阻证实。血清生化肝功能检测显示，与对照组相比，M-Zn处理的小鼠中ALT、AST、ALP和LDH显著升高，N-Zn处理的小鼠中ALT、ALP和LDH显著升高（P<0.05），这表明微米级和纳米级锌粉可能均诱导了肝损伤。在两个处理组的小鼠中也观察到了临床变化。上述酶的水平在M-Zn处理的小鼠中通常高于N-Zn处理的小鼠，这意味着M-Zn粉比N-Zn粉能诱导更严重的肝损伤。与N-Zn处理的小鼠或对照组相比，M-Zn处理的小鼠血清BUN和CR的生化肾功能检测结果均显著升高（P<0.05），但N-Zn处理的小鼠与对照小鼠之间未发现显著差异。然而，在暴露于N-Zn的小鼠中，通过肾脏组织病理学检查发现了严重的肾脏病变。因此，我们得出结论，N-Zn处理的小鼠可能会发生严重的肾损伤，尽管血液生化水平没有显著变化。血液成分检测显示，与对照组相比，N-Zn处理的小鼠中PLT和RDW-CV显著升高，HGB和HCT显著降低，这表明N-Zn粉可导致严重贫血。除了肝脏、肾脏和心脏组织的病理损伤外，在所有锌处理的小鼠中仅发现轻微的胃和肠道炎症，其他器官无明显病理变化。
