Abstract
Although the presence of foodborne nanoparticles was confirmed in grilled fish in a previous study, the evaluation of potential health risks of these NPs was insufficient. In the present study, the potential toxicity of onion-like carbon nanoparticles (OCNPs) separated from grilled turbot Scophthalmus maximus L. was evaluated using mouse osteoblasts cells model and zebrafish (Danio rerio) model. Cytotoxicity evaluation revealed that the OCNPs penetrated into the MC3T3-E1 cells without arousing cell morphology changes. No evident apoptosis or damage of cells was observed with increasing OCNPs’ concentration to 20 mg/mL. In the hemolysis test, OCNPs did not show an obvious hemolysis effect on red blood cells. In the acute toxicity test, the LC50 value (212.431 mg/L) of OCNPs to zebrafish showed a weak acute toxicity. In subacute toxicity test, after exposure to OCNPs (30 mg/L, 40 mg/L) for 10 days, a significant increase of reactive oxygen species level of zebrafish was observed. Meanwhile, redundant ROS content caused inhibition to several antioxidant enzymes and induced lipid and protein peroxidation damages according to the upregulation of malondialdehyde and protein carbonyl levels. The chronic toxicity test results indicated that oxidative stress was only observed in the high concentration group of OCNPs-treated zebrafish.
Highlights
In recent years, the utilization of nanoparticles (NPs) produced artificially has been explored in the food industry due to their distinct physicochemical properties [1,2,3]
The novelty of this study is to investigate the cytotoxicity, acute toxicity, subacute toxicity, and chronic toxicity of the onion-like carbon nanoparticles (OCNPs) produced from grilled turbot for the first time
The small size and onion-like structure with strong fluorescence of the OCNPs can probably enter our body when they are taken with food, which has attracted great attention for their in vitro and in vivo impacts when they are present in a daily meal
Summary
The utilization of nanoparticles (NPs) produced artificially has been explored in the food industry due to their distinct physicochemical properties [1,2,3]. NPs spontaneously generated during intense food processing have drawn great interest in their characteristics and potential health risks. Compared to those artificially synthesized NPs used in food packaging, storage, and tracking [4], exposure of NPs that exist in daily food to humans is considered more frequent. Foodborne NPs are commonly considered to be not harmful, the existence of NPs in what range of daily consumed food is upon our expectation, and they may cause considerable health risks to organisms. Research on subacute and chronic toxicity and metabolism process of foodborne NPs in organisms is in urgent need
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