PEGylated gold nanorods are not cytotoxic to human endothelial cells but affect kruppel-like factor signaling pathway.

PEGylated gold nanorods are not cytotoxic to human endothelial cells but affect kruppel-like factor signaling pathway. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2019 Sep 12;:114758 Authors: Li X, Tang Y, Chen C, Qiu D, Cao Y Abstract Gold (Au) nanomaterials (NMs), particularly those with PEG surface functionalization, are generally considered to be biocompatible for biomedical applications due to relatively low cytotoxicity. Herein, we investigated the toxicity of PEGylated Au nanorods (NRs) to human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), a commonly used in vitro model for human endothelium. We found a previously unknown effect that up to 10 μg/mL Au NRs, albeit not cytotoxic, decreased the mRNA and protein levels of kruppel-like factor 2 (KLF2), a transcription factor with well-documented vasoprotective effects. The results from PCR array showed that a number of genes associated with risk of cardiovascular diseases were altered by Au NRs, and several genes are downstream genes of KLF2 according to ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA). These effects could be observed with or without the presence of inflammatory stimuli lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which suggests a pre-existing inflammatory state is not required for Au NRs to alter KLF2 signaling pathway. We further identified that Au NRs significantly decreased eNOS mRNA/p-eNOS proteins as well as increased MCP-1 mRNA/sMCP-1 release, which are targets of KLF2. Combined, our data revealed a novel pathw...
Source: Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology - Category: Toxicology Authors: Tags: Toxicol Appl Pharmacol Source Type: research