Time- and dose-dependent gene expression analysis of macrophage response as a function of porosity of silica nanoparticles

In this study, RAW264.7 macrophages were treated with spherical nonporous and mesoporous silica nanoparticles of similar size at different incubation times and concentrations. RNA-sequencing was used to study transcriptional profiles. Bioinformatics analyses, functional annotation clustering, and network analyses were employed to understand signaling pathways of cellular response as a function of porosity, incubation time, and concentration. Porosity introduced drastic changes to the genomic response of macrophages at equitoxic concentrations and incubation times. Direct relations between increases in time and concentration with an increased number of differentially expressed genes were observed.Graphical Abstract- Mesoporous particles induce higher number of differentially expressed gene expressions compared to nonporous particles of similar size at equitoxic concentrations.- At equitoxic concentrations, over 17% of genes with at least two-fold change are common.- Time- and dose dependent hierarchical cellular responses as a function of particle porosity were observed.- Upregulation of actin cytoskeleton and downregulation of Rig I - like receptor signaling pathway for all samples were observed.
Source: Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine - Category: Nanotechnology Source Type: research