Fate and transformation of silver nanoparticles in different biological conditions

[摘要] The exploitation of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in biomedicine represents more than one third of their overall application. Despitetheir wide use and significant amount of scientific data on their effects on biological systems, detailed insight into their in vivo fateis still lacking. This study aimed to elucidate the biotransformation patterns of AgNPs following oral administration. Colloidalstability, biochemical transformation, dissolution, and degradation behaviour of different types of AgNPs were evaluated in systemsmodelled to represent biological environments relevant for oral administration, as well as in cell culture media and tissue compartments obtained from animal models. A multimethod approach was employed by implementing light scattering (dynamic and electrophoretic) techniques, spectroscopy (UV–vis, atomic absorption, nuclear magnetic resonance) and transmission electron microscopy. The obtained results demonstrated that AgNPs may transform very quickly during their journey through different biologicalconditions. They are able to degrade to an ionic form and again reconstruct to a nanoparticulate form, depending on the biologicalenvironment determined by specific body compartments. As suggested for other inorganic nanoparticles by other research groups,AgNPs fail to preserve their specific integrity in in vivo settings.

[学科分类] 环境监测和分析

[关键词] animal tissue;biological media;nanoparticle aggregation;nanoparticledissolution;nanoparticle reformation;silver nanoparticles