College of Biotechnology and Sericultural Research Institute, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, 212018, PR China.
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Science, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.
Chemosphere. 2020 Nov;259:127481. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.127481. Epub 2020 Jul 3.
Zinc Oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) has been heavily used in the industry, and increasing concerns on the ecotoxicity has arisen due to the risk of release into the environment. In this work, silkworm was used here as a model organism to study the toxicity of ZnO NPs, due to the presence of a conserved immune response as well as a pharmacokinetics similar to mammals. Zn accumulation, biodistribution and toxicity in silkworms were monitored at different time points after a subcutaneous injection. The highest cumulative content of ZnO NPs was detected in the midgut. The results of catalytic activity studies confirmed that the antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT, GSH-PX) in midgut cells were expressed in response to ZnO NPs. The expression of genes (Dronc and Caspase-1) related to apoptosis was increased, while the Trt gene was down-regulated. A possible mechanism was proposed for toxicity of ZnO NPs to silkworms.
氧化锌纳米颗粒（ZnO NPs）在工业中被广泛应用，由于有释放到环境中的风险，其生态毒性引起了人们越来越多的关注。在这项工作中，我们选择家蚕作为模式生物来研究 ZnO NPs 的毒性，因为家蚕具有保守的免疫反应以及与哺乳动物相似的药物代谢动力学。在皮下注射后不同时间点监测家蚕体内的 Zn 积累、生物分布和毒性。在中肠中检测到 ZnO NPs 的累积含量最高。催化活性研究的结果证实，中肠细胞中的抗氧化酶（SOD、CAT、GSH-PX）是对 ZnO NPs 表达的。与细胞凋亡相关的基因（Dronc 和 Caspase-1）表达增加，而 Trt 基因下调。提出了 ZnO NPs 对家蚕毒性的可能机制。
