Department of Ophthalmology, Dongguk University, Ilsan Hospital, Goyang, South Korea.
School of Chemical Engineering and Material Science, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea.
Sci Rep. 2016 Nov 23;6:37762. doi: 10.1038/srep37762.
Ocular drug delivery is an interesting field in current research. Silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) are promising drug carriers for ophthalmic drug delivery. However, little is known about the toxicity of SiNPs on ocular surface cells such as human corneal epithelial cells (HCECs). In this study, we evaluated the cytotoxicity induced by 50, 100 and 150 nm sizes of SiNPs on cultured HCECs for up to 48 hours. SiNPs were up-taken by HCECs inside cytoplasmic vacuoles. Cellular reactive oxygen species generation was mildly elevated, dose dependently, with SiNPs, but no significant decrease of cellular viability was observed up to concentrations of 100 μg/ml for three different sized SiNPs. Western blot assays revealed that both cellular autophagy and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathways were activated with the addition of SiNPs. Our findings suggested that 50, 100 and 150 nm sized SiNPs did not induce significant cytotoxicity in cultured HCECs.
眼用药物传递是当前研究中的一个有趣领域。硅纳米颗粒（SiNPs）是一种很有前途的眼用药物传递载体。然而，对于 SiNPs 对眼部表面细胞（如人角膜上皮细胞（HCECs））的毒性知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们评估了培养的 HCECs 中 50nm、100nm 和 150nm 大小的 SiNPs 在长达 48 小时内诱导的细胞毒性。SiNPs 被 HCECs 内吞到细胞质空泡中。细胞内活性氧的生成轻度升高，与 SiNPs 呈剂量依赖性，但在三种不同大小的 SiNPs 浓度高达 100μg/ml 时，细胞活力没有明显下降。Western blot 检测表明，SiNPs 的加入激活了细胞自噬和哺乳动物雷帕霉素靶蛋白（mTOR）通路。我们的研究结果表明，50nm、100nm 和 150nm 大小的 SiNPs 不会在培养的 HCECs 中引起明显的细胞毒性。
