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Published on: July 29, 2018
Beneficial effects of bioinspired silver nanoparticles on zebrafish embryos including a gene expression study
Sakthi Devi R1, Agnishwar Girigoswami1, Shanmugaraja Meenakshi1
1Medical Bionanotechnology, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Chettinad Hospital & Research Institute (CHRI), Chettinad Academy of Research and Education (CARE), Kelambakkam, Chennai-603 103, India.
Background And Purpose:
Many sectors use nanoparticles and dispose of them in the aquatic environment without deciding the fate of these particles.
Experimental Approach:
To identify a benign species of nanoparticles which can cause minimum harm to the aquatic environment, a comparative study was done with chemically synthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and green tea mediated synthesis (GT/AgNP) in both in vitro using human alveolar cancer cell line (A549) and normal cell line (L132), and in in vivo with zebrafish embryos.
Key Results:
The in vitro studies revealed that GT/AgNPs were less toxic to normal cells than cancer cells. The GT/AgNPs showed high biocompatibility for zebrafish embryos monitored microscopically for their developmental stages and by cumulative hatchability studies. The reduced hatchability found in the AgNPs-treated group was correlated by differential gene expression of zebrafish hatching enzymes (ZHE) (ZHE1 and ZHE2).
Conclusion:
The results indicated that nanoparticles can affect the hatching of zebrafish embryos and elicit toxicity at the gene level.
