Interaction of iron oxide Fe3O4 nanoparticles and alveolar macrophages in vivo

Aqueous suspension of magnetite nanoparticles with primary diameter of 10 nm were intratracheally administered into rat lungs. In 24 h, cells were isolated from bronchoalveolar lavage and examined under a transmission electron microscope. Alveolar macrophages demonstrated ability to actively uptake single nanoparticles and small aggregates composed of such particles, which then formed larger conglomerates inside fused phagosomes. Some of these mature phagosomes shed the membrane and free nanoparticles closely interacted with nuclear membrane and with cristae and mitochondrial membranes thereby inflicting pronounced damage to these intracellular structures. The loss of primary lysosomes can be viewed as indirect evidence attesting to the role played by diffusion of lysosomal hydrolytic enzymes in the final destruction of the alveolar macrophages provoked by nanoparticles.