Institute of Tissue Regeneration Engineering (ITREN), Dankook University, South Korea.
J Biomed Mater Res A. 2012 Apr;100(4):1033-43. doi: 10.1002/jbm.a.34053. Epub 2012 Feb 5.
Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have found a variety of uses including biomedical materials; however, studies of the cytotoxicity of AgNPs by size effects are only in the beginning stage. In this study, we examined the size-dependent cellular toxicity of AgNPs using three different characteristic sizes (∼ 10, 50, and 100 nm) against several cell lines including MC3T3-E1 and PC12. The cytotoxic effect determined based on the cell viability, intracellular reactive oxygen species generation, lactate dehydrogenase release, ultrastructural changes in cell morphology, and upregulation of stress-related genes (ho-1 and MMP-3) was fairly size- and dose-dependent. In particular, AgNPs stimulated apoptosis in the MC3T3-E1 cells, but induced necrotic cell death in the PC12 cells. Furthermore, the smallest sized AgNPs (10 nm size) had a greater ability to induce apoptosis in the MC3T3-E1 cells than the other sized AgNPs (50 and 100 nm). These data suggest that the AgNPs-induced cytotoxic effects against tissue cells are particle size-dependent, and thus, the particle size needs careful consideration in the design of the nanoparticles for biomedical uses.
银纳米粒子（AgNPs）具有多种用途，包括生物医学材料；然而，关于 AgNPs 的细胞毒性的大小效应的研究还处于起步阶段。在这项研究中，我们使用三种不同的特征尺寸（约 10、50 和 100nm）研究了 AgNPs 的尺寸依赖性细胞毒性，包括 MC3T3-E1 和 PC12 细胞系。基于细胞活力、细胞内活性氧生成、乳酸脱氢酶释放、细胞形态的超微结构变化以及应激相关基因（HO-1 和 MMP-3）的上调，确定了细胞毒性作用具有相当的尺寸和剂量依赖性。特别是，AgNPs 刺激 MC3T3-E1 细胞中的细胞凋亡，但在 PC12 细胞中诱导坏死性细胞死亡。此外，最小尺寸的 AgNPs（10nm 尺寸）比其他尺寸的 AgNPs（50nm 和 100nm）更能诱导 MC3T3-E1 细胞中的细胞凋亡。这些数据表明，AgNPs 对组织细胞的细胞毒性作用是依赖于颗粒尺寸的，因此，在设计用于生物医学用途的纳米颗粒时，需要仔细考虑颗粒尺寸。
