engleski

Imaging the behaviour of silver nanoparticles in biological media

Research and development in the area of nanoscience and nanotechnology offer new opportunities for making superior nanomaterials (NMs) having an enormous economic potential for new drugs and medical treatments, electronics, environmental remediation. Due to the large production volume of NMs, manufactured nanoparticles (NPs), the primary building blocks of NMs, may be released into the environment during handling, washing, disposal or abrasion, thus, raising concerns about potential toxic effects of NMs on the environment and human health. Despite a number of biological studies on the toxicity of various NPs in vitro or in vivo, strict physicochemical data on the primary steps of their stability and behaviour in biological media are still missing. In order to draw valid conclusions from the evaluation of the cellular influences of NPs, we performed comprehensive evaluation on characteristics and stability of silver NPs using transmission electron microscopy. The purpose of this study was to analyze the dispersability of silver NPs under conditions close to body fluids. We used Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM) cell culture medium as a prominent example which was supplemented with different amounts of bovine serum albumin (BSA), a common serum protein. We have selected 7 types of silver NPs (coated with citrate, poly-L-lysine, cetyltrimethylammonium, bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate, Tween 20, polyvinylpyrrolidone, and dodecyltrimethylammonium) which differ according to the coating agent applied for surface modifications. For all types of NPs tested, the aggregation behaviour was evaluated upon suspension in DMEM, with and without BSA. The TEM results showed particles organized in nanometric, but also in micrometric agglomerates. Addition of BSA inhibited aggregation of NPs. Therefore, biocompatible bulky capping agents, such as BSA provided steric colloidal stabilization.

silver nanoparticles; biologic media; BSA; aggregation; TEM

nije evidentirano