Abstract
Since several years nanoparticles (NPs) are produced by industries and used in several fields of activities. They are finally found in aquatic and terrestrial environments, where they are ingested by living organisms in which they accumulate, before being eliminated. In organisms, NPs represent foreign elements with their own physicochemical properties due to their small size. So NPs may interfere with the normal physiological mechanisms of the embryos, growing animals, and adults, and it is indispensable to understand their potentially direct or indirect harmful effects on living organisms. It has been already shown that NPs could be toxic to bacteria, algae, invertebrates, and vertebrates. In this review, several examples of recent studies are given. We will examine successively the effects of NPs on terrestrial and semiaquatic and aquatic vertebrate and invertebrate animals.
Highlights
Nanoparticles (NPs) are substances the diameter of which does not exceed 100 nm
Eisenia fetida exposed during seven days to 4 nm Co-NPs retained the NPs during eight weeks during which only about 20% of ingested NPs were excreted
By contrast with Lumbricus rubellus, no effects on the antioxidant enzyme both expression and activity and on any other toxical activity were observed in Eisenia fetida exposed to C60 fullerene-NPs [36, 39, 41]
Summary
Nanoparticles (NPs) are substances the diameter of which does not exceed 100 nm. This size provides them with physical and chemical properties different from materials usually found in environment [1, 2]. Several living models are used in order to measure the impacts of NPs on the organisms Studies concerning mammals, such as mouse, or bony fishes, such as the zebrafish, showed that nanoparticles exerted harmful effects on the reproduction and embryonic development [7, 8]. Kahru and Dubourguier proposed several ways to systematize this study field: (1) identify the most harmful effects of NPs on the most sensitive biological groups and (2) gather ecotoxicological information in order to evaluate the risks considering the NP type, such as NiO2NPs, ZnO-NPs, CuO-NPs, Ag-NPs, single wall nanotubes (SWNTs) or single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT-NTs), multiwall nanotubes (MWCNTs), and C60 fullerene, and experiment in significant organisms such as bacteria, algae, yeast, protozoa, nematodes, earthworms, crustaceans, fish, amphibians, and mammals [14]. The animal model and its natural environment were the starting point, but NP types may be this starting point
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