Center of Nuclear Energy in Agriculture (CENA), University of São Paulo (USP), Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil; Brazilian Nanotechnology National Laboratory (LNNano), Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil; Laboratory of Ecotoxicology and Biosafety, EMBRAPA Environment, Jaguariuna, São Paulo, Brazil.
Brazilian Nanotechnology National Laboratory (LNNano), Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil; Laboratory of Ecotoxicology and Biosafety, EMBRAPA Environment, Jaguariuna, São Paulo, Brazil.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2018 Dec 15;165:136-143. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2018.08.093. Epub 2018 Sep 5.
The increasing production and use of nanomaterials is causing serious concerns about their safety to human and environmental health. However, the applications of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiONP) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) hybrids has grown considerably, due to their enhanced photocatalytic efficiency. To our knowledge, there are no reports available to the scientific community about their toxicity. In this work, we perform a toxicity assessment of TiONP and TiO-MWCNT nanohybrid materials using Zebrafish embryos standardized 96 h early life stage assay, under different exposure conditions (with and without UV light exposure). After exposure the parameters assessed were acute toxicity, hatching rate, growth, yolk sac size, and sarcomere length. In addition, μ-probe X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (µ-XRF) was employed to observe if nanoparticles were uptaken by zebrafish embryos and consequently accumulated in their organisms. Neither TiONP nor TiO-MWCNT nanohybrids presented acute toxicity to the zebrafish embryos. Moreover, TiONP presents sublethal effects for total length (with and without UV light exposure) on the embryos. This work contributes to the understanding of the potential adverse effects of the emerging nanohybrid materials towards safe innovation approaches in nanotechnology.
纳米材料的产量和使用不断增加，对人类和环境健康的安全性引起了严重关注。然而，由于其增强的光催化效率，二氧化钛纳米粒子（TiONP）和多壁碳纳米管（MWCNT）混合物的应用已经大大增加。据我们所知，科学界没有关于它们毒性的报告。在这项工作中，我们使用标准化的 96 小时早期生命阶段测定法评估了 TiONP 和 TiO-MWCNT 纳米杂化材料的毒性，在不同的暴露条件下（有和没有紫外线照射）进行了评估。暴露后，评估的参数是急性毒性、孵化率、生长、卵黄囊大小和肌节长度。此外，还采用微探针 X 射线荧光光谱法（µ-XRF）观察纳米颗粒是否被斑马鱼胚胎吸收，并随后在其体内积累。TiONP 和 TiO-MWCNT 纳米杂化物都没有对斑马鱼胚胎表现出急性毒性。此外，TiONP 对胚胎的全长（有和没有紫外线照射）表现出亚致死效应。这项工作有助于了解新兴纳米杂化材料对安全创新方法的潜在不利影响纳米技术。
