School of Transportation and Civil Engineering, Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu 226019, PR China.
School of Life Science, Co-innovation Center of Neuroregeneration, Key Laboratory of Neuroregeneration of Jiangsu, Ministry of Education, Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu 226019, PR China.
Int J Biol Macromol. 2020 Dec 15;165(Pt B):1783-1792. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2020.10.033. Epub 2020 Oct 10.
The widespread use of nanomaterials poses a great threat to human living environments. Among them, biomass-derived cellulose nanoparticle (CN) is one of the widely used nanomaterials. To date, the toxicity of CNs during embryonic development remains undetermined. In this study, we exposed zebrafish embryos to cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) and cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) to evaluate the toxicity of these CNs. Exposure to CNFs or CNCs below 30 mg/ml exhibited no dose-dependent increases in malformation and mortality in zebrafish embryos. Then we demonstrated that CNs were highly enriched in zebrafish embryo via imaging analyses of embryos treated with FITC-coupled CNCs. In addition, we found that CNF or CNC exposure resulted in compromised motor ability of zebrafish larva. Furthermore, it was revealed that the differentiation and the morphogenesis of motor neurons were significantly interrupted. While, blood vessels were normally patterned, suggesting the specific neurotoxicity of these nanomaterials. Transcriptome sequencing assay showed that the neurotoxicity of CNs in the motor neurons might be attributed to the expression alteration of neural genes. In summary, we discovered the neurotoxicity of CNs for the first time.
纳米材料的广泛应用对人类生活环境构成了巨大威胁。其中，生物质衍生的纤维素纳米颗粒（CN）是广泛使用的纳米材料之一。迄今为止，CN 在胚胎发育过程中的毒性仍未确定。在这项研究中，我们将斑马鱼胚胎暴露于纤维素纳米纤维（CNF）和纤维素纳米晶体（CNC）中，以评估这些 CN 的毒性。暴露于低于 30mg/ml 的 CNF 或 CNC 下，斑马鱼胚胎的畸形和死亡率没有表现出剂量依赖性增加。然后，我们通过对用 FITC 偶联的 CNC 处理的胚胎进行成像分析，证明了 CN 高度富集于斑马鱼胚胎中。此外，我们发现 CNF 或 CNC 的暴露导致斑马鱼幼虫运动能力受损。此外，还发现运动神经元的分化和形态发生明显受到干扰。然而，血管正常形成，表明这些纳米材料具有特定的神经毒性。转录组测序实验表明，CN 在运动神经元中的神经毒性可能归因于神经基因表达的改变。综上所述，我们首次发现了 CN 的神经毒性。
