title: How physico-chemical characteristics of nanoparticles cause their toxicity: complex and unresolved interrelations.
abstract: The increased use of and interest in nanoparticles (NPs) have resulted in an enormous amount of NPs with different compositions and physico-chemical properties. These unique properties not only determine their utility for (bio-medical) applications, but also their toxicity. Recently, "nano-researchers" became aware of the importance of determining the characteristics since they might be predictors of their toxicity. Currently, we face a large set of (non-coordinated) experiments with miscellaneous objectives resulting in a large quantity of available (and often incomplete) data, which hamper the unraveling of the complex interrelated NP characteristics with experimental results. Here, we try to link different critical physico-chemical characteristics separately with toxicity observed in both in vitro and in vivo models.
authors.forename: Katrien
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Luyts
authors.forename: Dorota
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Napierska
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nemery
authors.forename: Peter H M
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Hoet
mesh_terms: D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity; D010316:Particle Size; D018675:Toxicity Tests
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants