Abstract
Outbred female rats were exposed to inhalation of lead oxide nanoparticle aerosol produced right then and there at a concentration of 1.30 ± 0.10 mg/m3 during 5 days for 4 h a day in a nose-only setup. A control group of rats were sham-exposed in parallel under similar conditions. Even this short-time exposure of a relatively low level was associated with nanoparticles retention demonstrable by transmission electron microscopy in the lungs and the olfactory brain. Some impairments were found in the organism’s status in the exposed group, some of which might be considered lead-specific toxicological outcomes (in particular, increase in reticulocytes proportion, in δ-aminolevulinic acid (δ-ALA) urine excretion, and the arterial hypertension’s development).
Highlights
Lead oxide nanoparticles (PbO-NP) are engineered for some essential technical applications
The researchers measured the lead contents of organs and tissues with the visualization of retained nanoparticles and described pathological changes in them, concluding that “subchronic exposure to lead oxide nanoparticles has profound negative effects at both cellular and tissue levels”
We demonstrated that the deposition of nanoparticles in the lungs as a result of intratracheal administration [11,12,13,14] or inhalation exposure [6,7,8] caused a response in the lower airways that was essentially similar to but a lot more intensive than the one provoked by similar exposures to low-soluble highly cytotoxic micrometer particles, such as, for instance, quartz dust [15,16]
Summary
Lead oxide nanoparticles (PbO-NP) are engineered for some essential technical applications (e.g., magnetic data storage and magnetic resonance imaging). From the standpoint of human health risk assessment, it is much more important that PbO particles pollute workplace and ambient air in aerosol form in such long-established and major industries as copper and lead smelters and refineries. Noteworthy are changes in the hippocampus associated with the penetration of nanoparticles into the brain from the nose as a primary site for their deposition Such penetration is characteristic of inhaled NPs of any chemical composition, as has been discovered in a number of studies [3,4,5], including ours [6,7,8]
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