High Surface Reactivity and Biocompatibility of YO NPs in Human MCF-7 Epithelial and HT-1080 FibroBlast Cells.

This study aimed to generate a comparative data on biological response of yttrium oxide nanoparticles (YO NPs) with the antioxidant CeO NPs and pro-oxidant ZnO NPs. Sizes of YO NPs were found to be in the range of 35±10 nm as measured by TEM and were larger from its hydrodynamic sizes in water (1004 ± 134 nm), PBS (3373 ± 249 nm), serum free culture media (1735 ± 305 nm) and complete culture media (542 ± 108 nm). Surface reactivity of YO NPs with bovine serum albumin (BSA) was found significantly higher than for CeO and ZnO NPs. The displacement studies clearly suggested that adsorption to either BSA, filtered serum or serum free media was quite stable, and was dependent on whichever component interacted first with the YO NPs. Enzyme mimetic activity, like that of CeO NPs, was not detected for the NPs of YO or ZnO. Cell viability measured by MTT and neutral red uptake (NRU) assays suggested YO NPs were not toxic in human breast carcinoma MCF-7 and fibroblast HT-1080 cells up to the concentration of 200 μg/mL for a 24 h treatment period. Oxidative stress markers suggested YO NPs to be tolerably non-oxidative and biocompatible. Moreover, mitochondrial potential determined by JC-1 as well as lysosomal activity determined by lysotracker (LTR) remained un-affected and intact due to YO and CeO NPs whereas, as expected, were significantly induced by ZnO NPs. Hoechst-PI dual staining clearly suggested apoptotic potential of only ZnO NPs. With high surface reactivity and biocompatibility, NPs of YO could be a promising agent in the field of nanomedicine.