Altered global gene expression profiles in human gastrointestinal epithelial Caco2 cells exposed to nanosilver

Publication date: Available online 22 January 2016 Source:Toxicology Reports Author(s): Saura C. Sahu Extensive consumer exposure to food- and cosmetics-related consumer products containing nanosilver is of public safety concern. Therefore, there is a need for suitable in vitro models and sensitive predictive rapid screening methods to assess their toxicity. Toxicogenomic profile showing subtle changes in gene expressions following nanosilver exposure is a sensitive toxicological endpoint for this purpose. We evaluated the Caco2 cells and global gene expression profiles as tools for predictive rapid toxicity screening of nanosilver. We evaluated and compared the gene expression profiles of Caco-2 cells exposed to 20nm and 50nm nanosilver at a concentration 2.5μg/ml. The global gene expression analysis of Caco2 cells exposed to 20nm nanosilver showed that a total of 93 genes were altered at 4h exposure, out of which 90 genes were up-regulated and 3 were down-regulated. The 24h exposure of 20nm silver altered 15 genes in Caco2 cells, out of which 14 were up-regulated and one was down-regulated. The most pronounced changes in gene expression were detected at 4 h. The greater size (50nm) nanosilver at 4h exposure altered more genes by more different pathways than the smaller (20nm) one. Metallothioneins and heat shock proteins were highly up-regulated as a result of exposure to both the nanosilvers. The cellular pathways affected by the nanosilver exposure is likely to lea...
Source: Toxicology Reports - Category: Toxicology Source Type: research