State Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
PLoS One. 2012;7(8):e43442. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0043442. Epub 2012 Aug 20.
Metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) are among the most highly produced nanomaterials, and have many diverse functions in catalysis, environmental remediation, as sensors, and in the production of personal care products. In this study, the toxicity of several widely used metal oxide NPs such as copper oxide, silica, titanium oxide and ferric oxide NPs, were evaluated In vitro. We exposed A549, H1650 and CNE-2Z cell lines to metal oxide NPs, and found CuO NPs to be the most toxic, SiO2 mild toxic, while the other metal oxide NPs had little effect on cell viability. Furthermore, the autophagic biomarker LC3-II significantly increased in A549 cells treated with CuO NPs, and the use of the autophagy inhibitors wortmannin and 3-methyladenin significantly improved cell survival. These results indicate that the cytoxicity of CuO NPs may involve the autophagic pathway in A549 cells.
金属氧化物纳米粒子（NPs）是产量最高的纳米材料之一，在催化、环境修复、传感器以及个人护理产品生产等方面具有多种功能。在这项研究中，我们评估了几种广泛使用的金属氧化物 NPs 的毒性，如氧化铜、二氧化硅、氧化钛和氧化铁 NPs。我们将 A549、H1650 和 CNE-2Z 细胞系暴露于金属氧化物 NPs 中，结果发现 CuO NPs 的毒性最大，SiO2 的毒性较小，而其他金属氧化物 NPs 对细胞活力几乎没有影响。此外，在用 CuO NPs 处理的 A549 细胞中，自噬生物标志物 LC3-II 显著增加，而自噬抑制剂wortmannin 和 3-甲基腺嘌呤的使用则显著提高了细胞存活率。这些结果表明，CuO NPs 的细胞毒性可能涉及 A549 细胞中的自噬途径。
