A progressive approach on zebrafish toward sensitive evaluation of nanoparticles' toxicity

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) possess a great promise in evaluating the toxicity of nanoparticles (NPs). The commonly used method on zebrafish was to calculate mortality and 5 or 6 days postfertilization (dpf) toxicity scores. However, this method could only reveal a general toxic level. To further distinguish the toxicity of NPs in the same general level, a more systematic and sensitive approach needs to be put forward. In this work, we describe a progressive approach toward the evaluation of the toxicity of MSRMs NPs we synthesized. This approach contained traditional and newly created methods. The results from traditional methods such as calculating mortality, recording 6 dpf toxicity scores and malformation types of zebrafish revealed a general low toxic level of MSRMs. Then the newly created method was conducted. By using scoring spectra of early developmental stages such as 2 or 3 dpf, we compared the malformation speeds of zebrafish exposed to different concentrations of MSRMs during the time 1 to 6 dpf. The results allowed more sensitive assessments of the toxicity of MSRMs.