Abstract
Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2NPs) are one of the most widespread-engineered particles in use for drug delivery, cosmetics, and electronics. However, TiO2NP safety is still an open issue, even for ethical reasons. In this work, we investigated the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus immune cell model as a proxy to humans, to elucidate a potential pathway that can be involved in the persistent TiO2NP-immune cell interaction in vivo. Morphology, phagocytic ability, changes in activation/inactivation of a few mitogen-activated protein kinases (p38 MAPK, ERK), variations of other key proteins triggering immune response (Toll-like receptor 4-like, Heat shock protein 70, Interleukin-6) and modifications in the expression of related immune response genes were investigated. Our findings indicate that TiO2NPs influence the signal transduction downstream targets of p38 MAPK without eliciting an inflammatory response or other harmful effects on biological functions. We strongly recommend sea urchin immune cells as a new powerful model for nano-safety/nano-toxicity investigations without the ethical normative issue.
Highlights
Homology with human genes[5]
The signals that lead to Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) activation are usually elicited at the cell surface mainly by a broad spectrum of membrane-bound receptors known as pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), which are involved in the initiation, promotion and execution of immune responses[14]
TiO2NPs suspended in several salt water media at different concentrations were previously characterized by a combination of analytical techniques, including transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS)[21]
Summary
Homology with human genes[5]. The sea urchin is a marine invertebrate in the lineage leading to the vertebrates and humans[6]. Several studies indicated that TLRs are involved in cellular uptake and immune response to TiO2NP exposure in human cell lines and mouse embryonic cell lines, relatively little is known about such interactions[16,17,18,19,20]. Our findings indicate that TiO2NPs influence the signal transduction downstream targets of p38 MAPK without eliciting an inflammatory response or other harmful effects on biological functions These results provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms and the factors involved in the progression of Echinoderm immune response after TiO2NP in vivo exposure, and provide intriguing suggestion concerning the use of the sea urchin immune cells as a new powerful tool for nano-safety/ nano-toxicity investigations
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