Abstract
The use of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in commercial products has increased significantly in recent years. Although there have been some attempts to determine the toxic effects of AgNPs in mammalian and human cell-lines, there is little information on plants which play a vital role in ecosystems. The study reports the use of Vicia faba root-tip meristem to investigate the genotoxicity of AgNPs under modified GENE-TOX test conditions. The root tip cells of V. faba were treated with four different concentrations of engineered AgNPs dispersion to study toxicological endpoints such as mitotic index (MI), chromosomal aberrations (CA) and micronucleus induction (MN). For each concentration, five sets of microscopy observations were carried out. The results demonstrated that AgNPs exposure significantly increased (p < 0.05) the number of chromosomal aberrations, micronuclei, and decreased the MI in exposed groups compared to control. From this study we infer that AgNPs might have penetrated the plant system and may have impaired mitosis causing CA and MN. The results of this study demonstrate that AgNPs are genotoxic to plant cells. Since plant assays have been integrated as a genotoxicity component in risk assessment for detection of environmental mutagens, they should be given full consideration when evaluating the overall toxicological impact of the nanoparticles in the environment.
Highlights
Nanomaterials are part of an industrial revolution to develop lightweight but strong materials for a variety of purposes [1]
The studies that report on toxic effects of AgNPs either in vivo [12,13,14] or in vitro [15,16,17,18] further provide data indicating adverse health effects of cells exposed to AgNPs
The results from this study showed that there was a statistically significant difference in the frequencies of micronucleus induction (MN) induction in the V. faba root-tips exposed to AgNP when compared to control
Summary
Nanomaterials are part of an industrial revolution to develop lightweight but strong materials for a variety of purposes [1]. The toxic effects of nanoparticles have been evaluated in a variety of studies; the potential health and environmental impacts on plants have yet to be thoroughly examined. Their uniquely small size and large surface area is a key indicator of toxicity which allows them to translocate when inhaled [3]. Most recently, nanomaterials such as single- and multi-walled nanotubes, nanofibers, fullerene derivatives, quantum dots, and metal oxide nanoparticles have received much attention due to their toxicity on human cells, bacteria, and rodents [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. The studies that report on toxic effects of AgNPs either in vivo [12,13,14] or in vitro [15,16,17,18] further provide data indicating adverse health effects of cells exposed to AgNPs
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