Genomic analysis of cytotoxicity response to nanosilver in human dermal fibroblasts

The aim of this paper was to investigate the molecular mechanisms of interaction between nanosilver and human dermal fibroblasts-fetal (HDF-f) at the level of gene expression. After HDF-f was treated with nanosilver for 1, 4 and 8 h, the cellular response was evaluated with methylthiazoltetrazolium (MTT) assay and flow cytometry analysis. Global gene expression profiles were examined using Illumina Human-6_V3 Expression BeadChip Array and the results were verified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The obtained differential expressed genes were analyzed by the integration of clustering, gene ontology (GO) and biological pathway analysis. The results suggest that nanosilver may cause disruption of cytoskeleton and cellular membrane, disturbance of energy metabolism and gene expression associated pathways, and DNA damage accompanied by cell cycle arrest. When the nanoparticle-cell interaction mechanisms induced by nanogold in our previous research were compared with nanosilver in the present study, both the similarities and differences underlying biological processes and gene regulations were found. The research also suggests that the genomics research can provide a convenient and efficient approach to the understanding of cytotoxicity mechanisms of nanomaterials.