School of Public Health, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, People's Republic of China.
Beijing Key Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, People's Republic of China.
Int J Nanomedicine. 2020 Nov 18;15:9089-9113. doi: 10.2147/IJN.S276105. eCollection 2020.
With the increasing production and application of engineered amorphous silica nanoparticles (aSiNPs), people have more opportunities to be exposed to aSiNPs. However, the knowledge of its adverse health effects and related mechanisms is still limited, compared with the well-studied crystalline micron-sized silica. Since small differences in the physical-chemical properties of nanoparticles could cause significant differences in the toxic effect, it is important to distinguish how these variations influence the outcoming toxicity. Notably, particle size, as one of the essential characterizations of aSiNPs, is relevant to its biological activities. Thus, the aim of this systematic review was to summarize the relationship between the particle size of aSiNPs and its adverse biological effects. In order to avoid the influence of complicated in vivo experimental conditions on the toxic outcome, only in vitro toxicity studies which reported on the cytotoxic effect of different sizes aSiNPs were included. After the systematic literature retrieval, selection, and quality assessment process, 76 eligible scientific papers were finally included in this review. There were 76% of the studies that concluded a size-dependent cytotoxicity of aSiNPs, in which smaller-sized aSiNPs possessed greater toxicity. However, this trend could be modified by certain influence factors, such as the synthetic method of aSiNPs, particle aggregation state in cell culture medium, toxicity endpoint detection method, and some other experimental conditions. The effects of these influence factors on the size-dependent cytotoxicity of aSiNPs were also discussed in detail in the present review.
随着工程化无定形二氧化硅纳米颗粒（aSiNPs）的产量和应用不断增加，人们接触 aSiNPs 的机会也越来越多。然而，与研究充分的结晶态微米级二氧化硅相比，人们对其不良健康影响和相关机制的了解仍然有限。由于纳米颗粒物理化学性质的微小差异可能导致其毒性效应的显著差异，因此区分这些变化如何影响毒性结果非常重要。值得注意的是，颗粒大小是 aSiNPs 的基本特征之一，与它的生物活性有关。因此，本系统综述的目的是总结 aSiNPs 颗粒大小与其不良生物学效应之间的关系。为了避免体内复杂实验条件对毒性结果的影响，本综述仅纳入了报告不同大小 aSiNPs 细胞毒性的体外毒性研究。经过系统的文献检索、选择和质量评估过程，最终有 76 篇符合条件的科学论文被纳入本综述。其中 76%的研究得出 aSiNPs 的细胞毒性具有尺寸依赖性，即较小尺寸的 aSiNPs 具有更大的毒性。然而，这种趋势可能会受到某些影响因素的修正，例如 aSiNPs 的合成方法、细胞培养液中颗粒的聚集状态、毒性终点检测方法以及其他一些实验条件。本综述还详细讨论了这些影响因素对 aSiNPs 尺寸依赖性细胞毒性的影响。
