Toxicity of Silver Nanoparticles at the Air-Liquid Interface

Abstract EN

Silver nanoparticles are one of the most prevalent nanomaterials in consumer products.

Some of these products are likely to be aerosolized, making silver nanoparticles a high priority for inhalation toxicity assessment.

To study the inhalation toxicity of silver nanoparticles, we have exposed cultured lung cells to them at the air-liquid interface.

Cells were exposed to suspensions of silver or nickel oxide (positive control) nanoparticles at concentrations of 2.6, 6.6, and 13.2 μg cm−2 (volume concentrations of 10, 25, and 50 μg ml−1) and to 0.7 μg cm−2 silver or 2.1 μg cm−2 nickel oxide aerosol at the air-liquid interface.

Unlike a number of in vitro studies employing suspensions of silver nanoparticles, which have shown strong toxic effects, both suspensions and aerosolized nanoparticles caused negligible cytotoxicity and only a mild inflammatory response, in agreement with animal exposures.

Additionally, we have developed a novel method using a differential mobility analyzer to select aerosolized nanoparticles of a single diameter to assess the size-dependent toxicity of silver nanoparticles.