Mechanism of N-acetyl-cysteine inhibition on the cytotoxicity induced by titanium dioxide nanoparticles in JB6 cells transfected with activator protein-1

Hongbo Shi; Yuanliang Gu; Zhenhua Xie; Qi Zhou; Guochuan Mao; Xialu Lin; Kui Liu; Yu Liu; Baobo Zou; Jinshun Zhao

doi:10.3892/etm.2017.4415

Mechanism of N-acetyl-cysteine inhibition on the cytotoxicity induced by titanium dioxide nanoparticles in JB6 cells transfected with activator protein-1

Exp Ther Med. 2017 Jun;13(6):3549-3554. doi: 10.3892/etm.2017.4415. Epub 2017 May 2.

Authors

Hongbo Shi^{1

2}, Yuanliang Gu¹, Zhenhua Xie³, Qi Zhou¹, Guochuan Mao^{1

2}, Xialu Lin¹, Kui Liu¹, Yu Liu¹, Baobo Zou¹, Jinshun Zhao¹

Affiliations

¹ Public Health Department of Medical School, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Pathological and Physiological Technology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang 315211, P.R. China.
² Ningbo Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Ningbo, Zhejiang 315010, P.R. China.
³ Department of Urology, Ningbo Yinzhou No. 2 Hospital, Ningbo, Zhejiang 315100, P.R. China.

Abstract

The present study investigated the mechanism of N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) inhibition on the cytotoxicity induced by titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles (NPs) using murine epidermal JB6 cells transfected with activator protein-1 (AP-1), JB6-AP-1 cells. Confocal microscopy was performed to localize TiO₂ NPs in cultured cells. The level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) present in cells was evaluated by staining with 2',7'-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate and dihydroethidium. AP-1 gene expression levels in the cells were detected using the luciferase assay. Confocal microscopy indicated that TiO₂ NPs passed through the cell membrane into the cytoplasm; however, they did not penetrate the nuclear membrane. The present findings indicated that NAC markedly inhibited ROS generation and significantly inhibited cytotoxicity (P<0.05) induced by TiO₂ NPs. Furthermore, alternative studies have demonstrated that AP-1 luciferase activity induced by TiO₂ NPs may be significantly inhibited by NAC. In conclusion, the ability for NAC to inhibit the cytotoxicity induced by TiO₂ NPs may primarily occur by blocking ROS generation in the cultured cells.

Keywords: N-acetyl-cysteine; cytotoxicity; inhibition; reactive oxygen species; titanium dioxide nanoparticles.