Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210009, China.
Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210009, China.
Environ Pollut. 2021 Dec 1;290:117993. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2021.117993. Epub 2021 Aug 17.
Indium tin oxide (ITO) is an important semiconductor material, because of increasing commercial products consumption and potentially exposed workers worldwide. So, urgently we need to assess and manage potential health risks of ITO. Although the Occupational Exposure Limit (OEL) has been established for ITO exposure, there is still a lack of distinguishing the risks of exposure to particles of different sizes. Therefore, obtaining toxicological data of small-sized particles will help to improve its risk assessment data. Important questions raised in quantitative risk assessments for ITO particles are whether biodistribution of ITO particles is affected by particle size and to what extent systematic adverse responses is subsequently initiated. In order to determine whether this toxicological paradigm for size is relevant in ITO toxic effect, we performed comparative studies on the toxicokinetics and sub-acute toxicity test of ITO in mice. The results indicate both sized-ITO resided in the lung tissue and slowly excreted from the mice, and the smaller size of ITO being cleared more slowly. Only a little ITO was transferred to other organs, especially with higher blood flow. Two type of ITO which deposit in the lung mainly impacts respiratory system and may injure liver or kidney. After sub-acute exposure to ITO, inflammation featured by neutrophils infiltration and fibrosis with both dose and size effects have been observed. Our findings revealed toxicokinetics and dose-dependent pulmonary toxicity in mice via oropharyngeal aspiration exposure, also replenish in vivo risk assessment of ITO. Collectively, these data indicate that under the current OEL, there are potential toxic effects after exposure to the ITO particles. The observed size-dependent biodistribution patterns and toxic effect might be important for approaching the hazard potential of small-sized ITO in an occupational environment.
氧化铟锡（ITO）是一种重要的半导体材料，由于全球商业产品的消费不断增加，潜在接触的工人也越来越多。因此，我们迫切需要评估和管理 ITO 的潜在健康风险。尽管已经为 ITO 暴露制定了职业接触限值（OEL），但仍然缺乏对不同粒径的暴露风险进行区分。因此，获得小粒径颗粒的毒理学数据将有助于改善其风险评估数据。在 ITO 颗粒定量风险评估中提出的重要问题是，ITO 颗粒的大小是否会影响其生物分布，以及系统不良反应随后会在多大程度上被引发。为了确定这种大小的毒理学范式是否与 ITO 毒性效应相关，我们在小鼠中进行了 ITO 的毒代动力学和亚急性毒性试验的比较研究。结果表明，两种粒径的 ITO 都存在于肺组织中，并从小鼠体内缓慢排出，而粒径较小的 ITO 清除得更慢。只有很少的 ITO 被转移到其他器官，尤其是血流较高的器官。两种沉积在肺部的 ITO 主要影响呼吸系统，可能会损伤肝脏或肾脏。在 ITO 亚急性暴露后，观察到以中性粒细胞浸润和纤维化为特征的炎症，具有剂量和粒径效应。我们的研究结果表明，通过经口吸入暴露，在小鼠中会发生毒代动力学和剂量依赖性的肺毒性，并补充了 ITO 的体内风险评估。总之，这些数据表明，在当前的 OEL 下，暴露于 ITO 颗粒后存在潜在的毒性作用。观察到的粒径依赖性生物分布模式和毒性作用可能对评估职业环境中小粒径 ITO 的危害潜力具有重要意义。
