Title
In vitro assessment of the toxicity of small silver nanoparticles and silver ions to the red blood cells
Author
Zhenxing Chi, Hongwei Lin, Weiguo Li, Xunuo Zhang, Qiang Zhang
Year
2018
Journal
Environmental Science and Pollution Research
Abstract
This work reports the toxicity of small silver nanoparticles (nanoAg, 20 nm) and silver ions (Ag+) to the red blood cells with the silver concentration level of 10−6 g/mL. Results show that red blood cells (RBCs) start hemolysis when treated by nanoAg of 1.5 × 10−5 g/mL or Ag+ of 2.9 × 10−7 g/mL. A low ATPase activity of 30% has been observed after RBCs being treated with Ag+ of 2.6 × 10−7 g/mL, while the nanoAg does not obviously affect the ATPase activity. In molecular level, Ag+ is more toxic to the amino acid residues than nanoAg according to the change of fluorescence characteristics of hemoglobin (Hb). However, the nanoAg has been found to be more toxic than Ag+ to the secondary structure of Hb in terms of the loss of α-helix content.
Instrument
J-810
Keywords
Circular dichroism, Secondary structure, Chemical stability, Nanostructures, Materials, Agriculture and environmental, Biochemistry