Heart and liver toxicity of silica NPs.

Effect on atrium and ventricle beat rate (a,c,e) and liver phenotype (b,d,f) of 20 nm (a,b), 50 nm (c,d) and 80 nm (e,f) silica NPs. Transgenic Tg(fabp10a:Dsred) 4dpf larvae were treated with silica NPs using concentrations ranging from 12.5 mg/l to 200 mg/l and at 5dpf and 7dpf examined for beat rate and liver phenotypes (g, scale bar = 0.5 mm), respectively. Terfenadine (10 μM) and paracetamol (10 mM) were used as positive controls. In case of beat rate measurements, 10 larvae were used individually per condition and results normalized against that of control larvae. The data represent the means and standard deviation for the pooled data (10 larvae, three independent biological replicates, n = 30). In case of liver phenotyping, 10 eggs were used individually per condition, and the result expressed as percentage of the total amount of larvae present that had a normal or abnormal liver (i.e. small, shrunk, swollen, spherical shape). The data represent the means and standard deviation for three independent biological replicates. (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, two-way ANOVA, Bonferroni correction).

Developmental toxicity of silica NPs. Effect of 20 nm, 50 nm and 80 nm silica NPs on the morphology of zebrafish larvae exposed from 4hpf – 120hpf to concentrations ranging from 12.5 mg/ml to 200 mg/ml. a) semi-quantitative scale used to calculate the severity of morphological defects, level 1 -normal: no visual defect detected; level 2-mild: embryos/larvae have less than 4 mild defects, level 3 -severe: embryos/larvae have at least one severe defect or more than 3 mild malformations; and level 4-death. PE: pericardiac edema, HM: head malformation, SE: small eyes, OP: opaque tissue, OY: opaque yolk, YND: yolk not depleted, BS: bent spine, JM: jaw malformation, SG: slow growth, TM: tail malformation, HR: hemorrhage. Scale bar = 1 mm; (b) Percentage of larval fish that showed a normal, mild or severe developmental phenotype or were dead at 120 hpf. 10 eggs were used individually per condition. Data represent the means and standard error of the mean for three independent biologic replicates. (p*<0.05, two-way ANOVA, Bonferroni correction ).