Exposure to airborne gold nanoparticles: a review of current toxicological data on the respiratory tract
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REVIEW
Exposure to airborne gold nanoparticles: a review of current toxicological data on the respiratory tract Barbara De Berardis & Magda Marchetti & Anna Risuglia & Federica Ietto & Carla Fanizza & Fabiana Superti
Received: 20 March 2020 / Accepted: 28 July 2020 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract In recent years, the introduction of innovative low-cost and large-scale processes for the synthesis of engineered nanoparticles with at least one dimension less than 100 nm has led to countless useful and extensive applications. In this context, gold nanoparticles stimulated a growing interest, due to their peculiar characteristics such as ease of synthesis, chemical stability Barbara De Berardis and Magda Marchetti contributed equally to this work. B. De Berardis : M. Marchetti : F. Superti (*) National Centre for Innovative Technologies in Public Health, National Institute of Health, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy e-mail: [email protected]
B. De Berardis e-mail: [email protected] M. Marchetti e-mail: [email protected] A. Risuglia : F. Ietto : C. Fanizza Department of Technological Innovations and Safety of Plants, Products and Anthropic Settlements, INAIL, Via R. Ferruzzi 38-40, 00143 Rome, Italy
A. Risuglia e-mail: [email protected] F. Ietto e-mail: [email protected] C. Fanizza e-mail: [email protected]
and optical properties. This stirred the development of numerous applications especially in the biomedical field. Exposure of manufacturers and consumers to industrial products containing nanoparticles poses a potential risk to human health and the environment. Despite this, the precise mechanisms of nanomaterial toxicity have not yet been fully elucidated. It is well known that the three main routes of exposure to nanomaterials are by inhalation, ingestion and through the skin, with inhalation being the most common route of exposure to NPs in the workplace. To provide a complete picture of the impact of inhaled gold nanoparticles on human health, in this article, we review the current knowledge about the physico-chemical characteristics of this nanomaterial, in the size range of 1–100 nm, and its toxicity for pulmonary structures both in vitro and in vivo. Studies comparing the toxic effect of NPs larger than 100 nm (up to 250 nm) are also discussed. Keywords Nanomaterials . Gold nanoparticles . Physico-chemical properties . Respiratory exposure . In vitro toxicity . In vivo toxicity . Environmental and health effects
Introduction Nanotechnology enabled the development of engineered materials at the nanometre scale with specific properties related to their size, morphology and surface reactivity. Due to their peculiar physico-chemical characteristics, nanoparticles raised great interest for
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their potential applications both in consumer products and in the biomedical field. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are attractive in several areas such as electronics, sensors (Han et al. 2015a), solar cells (Chen et al. 2015) and catalysis (Nita et al. 2016). They are also
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