Functionalized Nanoplastics (NPs) Increase the Toxicity of Metals in Fish Cell Lines.
Carmen González-FernándezFrancisco Guillermo Díaz BañosMaría Ángeles Esteban AbadAlberto CuestaPublished in: International journal of molecular sciences (2021)
Nanoplastics (NPs) are one of the most abundant environment-threatening nanomaterials on the market. The objective of this study was to determine in vitro if functionalized NPs are cytotoxic by themselves or increase the toxicity of metals. For that, we used 50 nm polystyrene nanoparticles with distinct surface functionalization (pristine, PS-Plain; carboxylic, PS-COOH; and amino PS-NH2) alone or combined with the metals arsenic (As) and methylmercury (MeHg), which possess an environmental risk to marine life. As test model, we chose a brain-derived cell line (SaB-1) from gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata), one of the most commercial fish species in the Mediterranean. First, only the PS-NH2 NPs were toxic to SaB-1 cells. NPs seem to be internalized into the cells but they showed little alteration in the transcription of genes related to oxidative stress (nrf2, cat, gr, gsta), cellular protection against metals (mta) or apoptosis (bcl2, bax). However, NPs, mainly PS-COOH and PS-NH2, significantly increased the toxicity of both metals. Since the coexistence of NPs and other pollutants in the aquatic environment is inevitable, our results reveal that the combined effect of NPs with the rest of pollutants deserves more attention.
Keyphrases
- oxidative stress
- oxide nanoparticles
- induced apoptosis
- human health
- cell cycle arrest
- health risk assessment
- health risk
- risk assessment
- heavy metals
- endoplasmic reticulum stress
- room temperature
- ischemia reperfusion injury
- transcription factor
- genome wide
- dna damage
- cell death
- quantum dots
- signaling pathway
- mass spectrometry
- climate change
- single cell
- gene expression
- pi k akt
- simultaneous determination
- cerebral ischemia
- dna methylation
- life cycle
- molecularly imprinted