Pulmonary toxicity of Fe2O3, ZnFe2O4, NiFe2O4 and NiZnFe4O8 nanomaterials: Inflammation and DNA strand breaks

Niels Hadrup; Anne T Saber; Zdenka O Kyjovska; Nicklas R Jacobsen; Minnamari Vippola; Essi Sarlin; Yaobo Ding; Otmar Schmid; Håkan Wallin; Keld A Jensen; Ulla Vogel

doi:10.1016/j.etap.2019.103303

Pulmonary toxicity of Fe₂O₃, ZnFe₂O₄, NiFe₂O₄ and NiZnFe₄O₈ nanomaterials: Inflammation and DNA strand breaks

Environ Toxicol Pharmacol. 2020 Feb:74:103303. doi: 10.1016/j.etap.2019.103303. Epub 2019 Nov 21.

Authors

Niels Hadrup¹, Anne T Saber², Zdenka O Kyjovska³, Nicklas R Jacobsen⁴, Minnamari Vippola⁵, Essi Sarlin⁶, Yaobo Ding⁷, Otmar Schmid⁸, Håkan Wallin⁹, Keld A Jensen¹⁰, Ulla Vogel¹¹

Affiliations

¹ National Research Centre for the Working Environment (NFA), 105 Lersø Parkallé, Copenhagen Ø, Denmark. Electronic address: nih@nfa.dk.
² National Research Centre for the Working Environment (NFA), 105 Lersø Parkallé, Copenhagen Ø, Denmark. Electronic address: ats@nfa.dk.
³ National Research Centre for the Working Environment (NFA), 105 Lersø Parkallé, Copenhagen Ø, Denmark. Electronic address: zokyjovska@gmail.com.
⁴ National Research Centre for the Working Environment (NFA), 105 Lersø Parkallé, Copenhagen Ø, Denmark. Electronic address: nrj@nfa.dk.
⁵ Materials Science and Environmental Engineering, Tampere University, P.O.Box 589, 33014 Tampere University, Finland. Electronic address: minnamari.vippola@tuni.fi.
⁶ Materials Science and Environmental Engineering, Tampere University, P.O.Box 589, 33014 Tampere University, Finland. Electronic address: essi.sarlin@tuni.fi.
⁷ Comprehensive Pneumology Center, Member of the German Center for Lung Research, Max-Lebsche-Platz 31, 81377 Munich, Germany; Institute of Lung Biology and Disease, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Ingolstädter Landstraße 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany. Electronic address: dyb450303@gmail.com.
⁸ Comprehensive Pneumology Center, Member of the German Center for Lung Research, Max-Lebsche-Platz 31, 81377 Munich, Germany; Institute of Lung Biology and Disease, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health, Ingolstädter Landstraße 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany. Electronic address: otmar.schmid@helmholtz-muenchen.de.
⁹ National Institute of Occupational Health, Oslo, Norway. Electronic address: Hakan.Wallin@stami.no.
¹⁰ National Research Centre for the Working Environment (NFA), 105 Lersø Parkallé, Copenhagen Ø, Denmark. Electronic address: kaj@nfa.dk.
¹¹ National Research Centre for the Working Environment (NFA), 105 Lersø Parkallé, Copenhagen Ø, Denmark; Department of Health Technology, Danish Technical University (DTU), DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark. Electronic address: ubv@nfa.dk.

PMID: 31794919
DOI: 10.1016/j.etap.2019.103303

Abstract

Exposure to metal oxide nanomaterials potentially occurs at the workplace. We investigated the toxicity of two Fe-oxides: Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles and nanorods; and three MFe₂O₄ spinels: NiZnFe₄O₈, ZnFe₂O₄, and NiFe₂O₄ nanoparticles. Mice were dosed 14, 43 or 128 μg by intratracheal instillation. Recovery periods were 1, 3, or 28 days. Inflammation - neutrophil influx into bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid - occurred for Fe₂O₃ rods (1 day), ZnFe₂O₄ (1, 3 days), NiFe₂O₄ (1, 3, 28 days), Fe₂O₃ (28 days) and NiZnFe₄O₈ (28 days). Conversion of mass-dose into specific surface-area-dose showed that inflammation correlated with deposited surface area and consequently, all these nanomaterials belong to the so-called low-solubility, low-toxicity class. Increased levels of DNA strand breaks were observed for both Fe₂O₃ particles and rods, in BAL cells three days post-exposure. To our knowledge, this is, besides magnetite (Fe₃O₄), the first study of the pulmonary toxicity of MFe₂O₄ spinel nanomaterials.

Keywords: Iron; Metal oxides; Nanomaterial; Nickel; Pulmonary; Zinc.

MeSH terms

Animals
Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid
DNA Damage
Lung / drug effects*
Metal Nanoparticles / toxicity*
Mice