Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Environ Int. 2021 Jan;146:106184. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2020.106184. Epub 2020 Nov 1.
Nanobiomaterials (NBMs) are currently being tested in numerous biomedical applications, and their use is expected to grow rapidly in the near future. Many different types of nanomaterials are employed for a wide variety of different applications. Silver nanoparticles (nano-Ag) have been investigated for their antibacterial, antifungal, and osteoinductive properties to be used in catheters, wound healing, dental applications, and bone healing. Polymeric nanoparticles such as poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) are mainly studied for their ability to deliver cancer drugs as the body metabolizes them into simple compounds. However, most of these applications are still in the development stage and unavailable on the market, meaning that information on possible consumption, material flows, and concentrations in the environment is lacking. We thus modeled a realistic scenario involving several nano-Ag and PLGA applications which are already in use or likely to reach the market soon. We assumed their full market penetration in Europe in order to explore the prospective flows of NBMs and their environmental concentrations. The potential flows of three application-specific composite materials were also examined for one precise application each: FeOPEG-PLGA used in drug delivery, MgHA-collagen used for bone tissue engineering, and PLLA-Ag applied in wound healing. Mean annual consumption in Europe, considering all realistic and probable applications of the respective NBMs, was estimated to be 5,650 kg of nano-Ag and 48,000 kg of PLGA. Mean annual consumption of the three application-specific materials under the full market penetration scenario was estimated to be 4,000 kg of FeOPEG-PLGA, 58 kg of MgHA-collagen, and 24,300 kg of PLLA-Ag. A probabilistic material-flow model was used to quantify flows of the NBMs studied from production, through use, and on to end-of-life in the environment. The highest possible worst-case predicted environmental concentration (wc-PEC) were found to occur in sewage sludge, with 0.2 µg/kg of nano-Ag, 400 µg/kg of PLGA, 33 µg/kg of FeOPEG-PLGA, 0.007 µg/kg of MgHA-collagen, and 2.9 µg/kg of PLLA-Ag. PLGA exhibited the highest concentration in all environmental compartments except natural and urban soil, where nano-Ag showed the highest concentration. The results showed that the distribution of NBMs into different environmental and technical compartments is strongly dependent on their type of application.
纳米生物材料（NBMs）目前正在许多生物医学应用中进行测试，预计在不久的将来其使用量将迅速增长。许多不同类型的纳米材料被用于各种不同的应用。银纳米颗粒（nano-Ag）因其具有抗菌、抗真菌和骨诱导特性而被研究用于导管、伤口愈合、牙科应用和骨愈合。聚乳酸-羟基乙酸共聚物（PLGA）等聚合物纳米颗粒主要因其能够输送癌症药物而被研究，因为身体会将其代谢为简单的化合物。然而，这些应用中的大多数仍处于开发阶段，尚未在市场上推出，这意味着缺乏有关可能的消耗、物质流动和环境中浓度的信息。因此，我们模拟了一个涉及几种已投入使用或即将投放市场的纳米 Ag 和 PLGA 应用的现实情景。我们假设它们在欧洲完全渗透市场，以探索 NBMs 的潜在流动及其环境浓度。还为每种特定应用检查了三种应用特定复合材料的潜在流动：用于药物输送的 FeOPEG-PLGA、用于骨组织工程的 MgHA-胶原和用于伤口愈合的 PLLA-Ag。考虑到各自 NBMs 的所有实际和可能的应用，欧洲的年平均消耗量估计为 5650 公斤纳米 Ag 和 48000 公斤 PLGA。在完全渗透市场的情况下，三种特定应用材料的年平均消耗量估计为 4000 公斤 FeOPEG-PLGA、58 公斤 MgHA-胶原和 24300 公斤 PLLA-Ag。使用概率物质流模型来量化从生产到使用再到环境寿命结束的研究中 NBMs 的流动。发现最高可能的最差情况预测环境浓度（wc-PEC）出现在污水污泥中，纳米 Ag 为 0.2 µg/kg，PLGA 为 400 µg/kg，FeOPEG-PLGA 为 33 µg/kg，MgHA-胶原为 0.007 µg/kg，PLLA-Ag 为 2.9 µg/kg。PLGA 在除自然和城市土壤外的所有环境成分中的浓度最高，而纳米 Ag 在这些成分中的浓度最高。结果表明，NBMs 分布到不同的环境和技术成分取决于它们的应用类型。
