title: Effect of Silver Coating on Barium Titanium Oxide Nanoparticle Toxicity.
abstract: Nanoparticles are presently being studied for optical and biomedical applications such as medical imaging and drug delivery. Nanoparticles impact the cellular environment due to many variables such as size, shape, and composition. How these factors affect cell viability is not fully understood. The purpose of this study is to test the toxicity effects of silver coating (Ag@) Barium Titanium Oxide (BaTiO3) nanoparticles on Rhesus Monkey Retinal Endothelial cells (RhREC's) in culture. The addition of silver to the nanoparticles increases their nonlinear optical properties significantly, making the Ag@BaTiO3nanoparticles good candidates for nonlinear microscopy contrast agents. We hypothesize that by silver coating nanoparticles, there will be an increase in cell viability at higher concentrations when compared to non-silver coated nanoparticles. RhREC's were treated with BaTiO3and Ag@BaTiO3at concentrations of 0, 1.0, 10.0, and 100µg/ml for 24 hours at 37°C + 5%CO2. After 24 hour incubation with respective nanoparticles, cell viability was determined using the trypan blue dye-exclusion method. Treatment with 0, 1.0 and 10.0µg/ml of Ag@BaTiO3had minimal effect on cell viability, with 90% viable cells remaining at the end of the 24 hours treatment period. However, cells treated with 100µg/ml of Ag@BaTiO3resulted in a decrease to 51% viable cells. Comparatively, cells treated with 0, 1.0 and 10µg/ml of BaTiO3had no significant effect on cell viability (90% viable cells after treatment) while the 100µg/ml treatment resulted in a decrease to 29% viable cells. These results show that silver coating of BaTiO3nanoparticles has a protective effect on cellular toxicity at high concentrations.
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at San Antonio, Department of Biology, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249,USA.
authors.forename: Isidro D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Obregon
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at San Antonio, Department of Biology, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249,USA.
authors.forename: Brandi S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Betts-Obregon
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at San Antonio, Department of Physics and Astronomy, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yust
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at San Antonio, Department of Physics and Astronomy, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pedraza
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at San Antonio, Department of Biology, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249,USA.
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ortiz
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at San Antonio, Department of Physics and Astronomy, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249, USA.
authors.forename: Dhiraj
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sardar
authors.affiliation: The University of Texas at San Antonio, Department of Biology, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249,USA.
authors.forename: Andrew T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Tsin
keywords: Cells Toxicity; Nanoparticles; Rhesus Monkey Retinal Endothelial Cells (RhREC)