Cytotoxicity of gold nanoparticles in human neural precursor cells and rat cerebral cortex

Nanoparticles are promising tools for the advancement of drug delivery, medical imaging, and as diagnostic sensor. Medical nanodevices should develop miniaturization, because it would be injected into a human body. Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) with different sizes and shapes have therapeutic potential as a result of their small size, robust nature, excellent biocompatibility and optical properties. However, the application of GNPs as medical nanodevices it is necessary to know the biodegradation, biocompatibility, and development of surface coating which avoid the accumulation of nanoparticles. In this study, we carry out an in vitro toxicity and in vivo gene expression study using two kinds of GNPs. We found that GNPs toxicity is dependent on the dose or size administrated after the injected GNPs into the brain, and small particle size GNPs appeared more nestin expression compared to large particle size at short term implantation. These findings of toxicity of GNPs may play an important role in development of in vivo tools for the safety of GNPs.