Kumari Mamta, Ernest Vinita, Mukherjee Amitava, Chandrasekaran Natarajan
Centre for Nanobiotechnology, VIT University Vellore, Vellore, India.
Methods Mol Biol. 2012;926:399-410. doi: 10.1007/978-1-62703-002-1_26.
Increasing application of silver nanoparticles (SNPs) and zinc oxide nanoparticles (nZnO) in consumer products like textiles, cosmetics, washing machines and other household products increases their chance to reach the environment. Intensive research is required to assess the nanoparticles' toxicity to the environmental system. The toxicological effect of nanoparticles has been studied at the miniscule scale and requires intensive research to be conducted to assess its unknown effects. Plants are the primary target species which need to be included to develop a comprehensive toxicity profile for nanoparticles. So far, the mechanisms of toxicity of nanoparticles to the plant system remains largely unknown and little information on the potential uptake of nanoparticles by plants and their subsequent fate within the food chain is available. The phytoxicological behaviour of silver and zinc oxide nanoparticles on Allium cepa and seeds of Zea mays (maize), Cucumis sativus (cucumber) and Lycopersicum esculentum (tomato) was done. The in vitro studies on A. cepa have been done to check the cytotoxicological effects including mitotic index, chromosomal aberrations, vagrant chromosomes, sticky chromosomes, disturbed metaphase, breaks and formation of micronucleus. In vitro and in vivo studies on seed systems exposed to different concentration of nanoparticles dispersion to check phytotoxicity end point as root length, germination effect, adsorption and accumulation of nanoparticles (uptake studies) into the plant systems. In vivo studies in a seed system was done using phytagel medium. Biochemical studies were done to check effect on protein, DNA and thiobarbituric acid reactive species concentration. FT-IR studies were done to analyze the functional and conformational changes in the treated and untreated samples. The toxicological effects of nanoparticles had to be studied at the miniscule scale to address existing environment problems or prevent future problems. The findings suggest that the engineered nanoparticles, though having significant advantages in research and medical applications, requires a great deal of toxicity database to ascertain the biosafety and risk of using engineered nanoparticles in consumer products.
银纳米颗粒（SNPs）和氧化锌纳米颗粒（nZnO）在纺织品、化妆品、洗衣机及其他家用产品等消费品中的应用日益广泛，这增加了它们进入环境的可能性。需要开展深入研究以评估纳米颗粒对环境系统的毒性。纳米颗粒的毒理学效应已在微观尺度上进行了研究，但仍需开展深入研究以评估其未知影响。植物是主要的目标物种，需要将其纳入以建立纳米颗粒全面的毒性概况。到目前为止，纳米颗粒对植物系统的毒性机制在很大程度上仍不为人所知，关于植物对纳米颗粒的潜在吸收及其在食物链中的后续命运的信息也很少。研究了银和氧化锌纳米颗粒对洋葱、玉米种子、黄瓜种子和番茄种子的植物毒理学行为。对洋葱进行了体外研究，以检查细胞毒理学效应，包括有丝分裂指数、染色体畸变、游离染色体、粘性染色体、中期紊乱、断裂和微核形成。对暴露于不同浓度纳米颗粒分散液的种子系统进行了体外和体内研究，以检查植物毒性终点，如根长、发芽效应、纳米颗粒在植物系统中的吸附和积累（吸收研究）。在种子系统中使用植物凝胶培养基进行了体内研究。进行了生化研究以检查对蛋白质、DNA和硫代巴比妥酸反应性物质浓度的影响。进行了傅里叶变换红外光谱（FT-IR）研究以分析处理和未处理样品中的功能和构象变化。必须在微观尺度上研究纳米颗粒的毒理学效应，以解决现有的环境问题或预防未来的问题。研究结果表明，工程纳米颗粒虽然在研究和医学应用中具有显著优势，但需要大量的毒性数据库来确定在消费品中使用工程纳米颗粒的生物安全性和风险。
