Original ArticlePotential impact of metal oxide nanoparticles on the immune system: The role of integrins, L-selectin and the chemokine receptor CXCR4
Graphical Abstract
Nanoparticles are extensively used, but their interaction with the immune system is poorly understood, regardless of potential adverse effects. We assessed the impact of metallic Nps (ZnO, CeO2, TiO2 and Al2O3) measuring the expression of adhesion molecules and the chemokine receptor CXCR4 in peripheral blood lymphocytes, T-cell proliferative responses, chemotaxis, basophil activation state and leukocyte oxidative burst after phagocytosis. We found that, although not toxic, metallic NPs do not seem inert, being able to alter key cell functions such as T-cell proliferative responses and chemotaxis, which could translate into important side effects in a medical context.
Section snippets
Methods
We state that this study was approved by an ethics committee.
Metal oxide NPs induce changes in the expression levels of adhesion molecules and in the chemokine receptor CXCR4 on human PBLs
We assessed the effects of different concentrations of the metallic ZnO, CeO2, TiO2 and Al2O3 NPs, ranging from 0.5 to 50 μg/ml, on the expression levels of several adhesion molecules and of CXCR4 by flow cytometry. For the ZnO NPs, the experiments were performed using suboptimal, non-toxic concentrations3 of this nanomaterial.
A decrease was observed in the levels of the integrins LFA-1, β-1 and L-selectin upon cell incubation with all NPs tested (Figure 1, A-C). In contrast, regarding CXCR4
Discussion
Nanoparticles (NPs) are artificially engineered structures on the nanometer-length scale, increasingly used for medical applications. Therefore, understanding the interactions between NPs and the components of the immune system is crucial, given that the bioavailability and clearance of the particles may be affected, as well as the proper triggering of the immune responses. NPs can be immunostimulatory or immunosuppressive, but the role of engineered nanomaterials in the immune modulation is
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Funding: This work was supported by ETORTEK 2010 (ETORIE 10-276) and HINAMOX (FP7/NMP4-SL-2009-228825). We also wish to thank the EU program BIOCAPS (FP7/REGPOT-2012-2013-316265) for its support. T.L. acknowledges an FPU fellowship (Spanish Ministry of Education). The authors declare no conflict of interest.