Abstract
Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) became an integral part of the consumer and industrial products used daily in our society. Despite of increasing production and use of goods containing silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), and their inevitable release into the environment, the processes controlling their environmental fate and toxicity are yet to be fully understood. There are several reasons for the persistence of this knowledge gap: NPs show complex colloid behaviour which is likely to be affected by both primary particle-specific characteristics and the biotic/abiotic factors of the surrounding environment; the assessment of toxicological activity and mechanisms is complicated by unstable exposure conditions resulting from various transformation processes of NPs during the test.
Many current toxicological studies lack the sufficient analytical characterisation of AgNPs under the relevant test conditions, leading to incorrect interpretations of toxicity data. Clearly, the physicochemical analysis is essential to
understanding of fate and behaviour of AgNPs in the environment, as well as uptake and distribution within organisms. This objective can be achieved by integrating analytical approach into the nanotoxicological assessment and adopting the available nanometrological tools for NP analysis. This doctoral thesis focuses on promoting cross-fertilization between fields of toxicological and environmental research and investigates methodological integrations advantageous for the ENM analysis in both environmental and biological media.
The work presented in this thesis details studies into behaviour of Ag-containing NPs, monitoring physicochemical transformations, NPcell interactions, and uptake. In addition, it exemplifies the use of single particle inductively coupled mass spectrometry (SP-ICP-MS) as routine method in nanotoxicology. The results demonstrate how the presence of exposed organisms may affect the behaviour of AgNPs during the test, show the significance of NP-cell interaction and uptake for the toxic mechanisms, and confirm the relevance of complementary analytical data for the correct interpretation of toxicological data. Lastly, a number of possible future implementations in nanometrological analysis are discussed that may help to advance the use of these tools in nanotoxicological field.
Many current toxicological studies lack the sufficient analytical characterisation of AgNPs under the relevant test conditions, leading to incorrect interpretations of toxicity data. Clearly, the physicochemical analysis is essential to
understanding of fate and behaviour of AgNPs in the environment, as well as uptake and distribution within organisms. This objective can be achieved by integrating analytical approach into the nanotoxicological assessment and adopting the available nanometrological tools for NP analysis. This doctoral thesis focuses on promoting cross-fertilization between fields of toxicological and environmental research and investigates methodological integrations advantageous for the ENM analysis in both environmental and biological media.
The work presented in this thesis details studies into behaviour of Ag-containing NPs, monitoring physicochemical transformations, NPcell interactions, and uptake. In addition, it exemplifies the use of single particle inductively coupled mass spectrometry (SP-ICP-MS) as routine method in nanotoxicology. The results demonstrate how the presence of exposed organisms may affect the behaviour of AgNPs during the test, show the significance of NP-cell interaction and uptake for the toxic mechanisms, and confirm the relevance of complementary analytical data for the correct interpretation of toxicological data. Lastly, a number of possible future implementations in nanometrological analysis are discussed that may help to advance the use of these tools in nanotoxicological field.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
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| Forlag | Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen |
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| Status | Udgivet - 2016 |