The effect of PEGylated iron oxide nanoparticles on sheep ovarian tissue: An ex-vivo nanosafety study

Sareh Karimi,Seyed Nasrollah Tabatabaei,Arno C Gutleb,Marefat Ghaffari Novin,Alireza Ebrahimzadeh-Bideskan,Zahra Shams Mofarahe

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04862

Abstract

Today, nanotechnology plays an important role in our ever-continuous quest to improve the quality of human life. Because of their infinitesimal size, nanostructures can actively interact and alter cellular functions. Therefore, while the clinical benefits of nanotechnology may outweigh most of the associated risks, assessment of the cytotoxicity of nanostructures in respect to cells and tissues early in product development processes is of great significance. To the best of our knowledge, no such assessment has been performed for nanomaterials on the ovarian cortex before. Herein, silica-coated, PEGylated silica-coated, and uncoated iron oxide nanoparticles (IONP) with core diameter of 11 nm (±4.2 nm) were synthesized. The oxidative stress in cultured ovarian tissue exposed to the various IONP was subsequently assessed. The results indicate that among the four groups, uncoated IONP induce the most oxidative stress on the ovarian cortex while tissues treated with PEGylated IONP exhibit no significant change in oxidative stress.

Highlights

Today, medical nanotechnology is already applied to a wide spectrum of treatments for countless patients around the world
The morphology of tissues was evaluated by Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining, follicle viability was assayed by neutral red staining, penetration profile of iron oxide nanoparticles (IONP) was determined by Prussian blue staining, and to evaluate the oxidative stress, biochemical assessments were performed
IONP have many applications in medicine including: enhance targeting for drug delivery [32], hyperthermia to complement treatment of various tumor types [33], promote transient opening of the blood-brain barrier [34], enhance MRI contrast for medical imaging [35]

Summary

Introduction

Medical nanotechnology is already applied to a wide spectrum of treatments for countless patients around the world. Among the many types of nanomaterials, magnetic nanoparticles, and among those, iron oxide nanoparticles (IONP) have been attractive for medical applications These particles are extremely versatile, relatively biocompatible [5], the IONP have multifunctional applications in the fields of MRI, target-specific drug delivery, gene therapy, cancer treatments, in vitro diagnostics and in ex-vivo techniques such as cryopreservation [6]. These nanostructures may have harmful effects due to the presence of iron as a redox agent, which releases reactive oxygen species and causes oxidative stress [7], DNA [8] and protein damage [9], as well as changes in the mitochondrial membrane potential [10]

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Conclusion