Beneficial effects of bioinspired silver nanoparticles on zebrafish embryos including a gene expression study.

Abstract

Many sectors use nanoparticles and dispose of them in the aquatic environment without deciding the fate of these particles. 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. 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). The results indicated that nanoparticles can affect the hatching of zebrafish embryos and elicit toxicity at the gene level.