title: Lung injury induced by TiO2 nanoparticles depends on their structural features: size, shape, crystal phases, and surface coating.
abstract: With the rapid development of nanotechnology, a variety of engineered nanoparticles (NPs) are being produced. Nanotoxicology has become a hot topic in many fields, as researchers attempt to elucidate the potential adverse health effects of NPs. The biological activity of NPs strongly depends on physicochemical parameters but these are not routinely considered in toxicity screening, such as dose metrics. In this work, nanoscale titanium dioxide (TiO2), one of the most commonly produced and widely used NPs, is put forth as a representative. The correlation between the lung toxicity and pulmonary cell impairment related to TiO2 NPs and its unusual structural features, including size, shape, crystal phases, and surface coating, is reviewed in detail. The reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in pulmonary inflammation in response to the properties of TiO2 NPs is also briefly described. To fully understand the potential biological effects of NPs in toxicity screening, we highly recommend that the size, crystal phase, dispersion and agglomeration status, surface coating, and chemical composition should be most appropriately characterized.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Biomechanics and Mechanobiology of Ministry of Education, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China. wangjiangxue@buaa.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jiangxue
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Biomechanics and Mechanobiology of Ministry of Education, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China. yubofan@buaa.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yubo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D020099:Coated Materials, Biocompatible / Q000633:toxicity*; D003460:Crystallization; D006801:Humans; D055370:Lung Injury / Q000139:chemically induced*; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity*; D010316:Particle Size; D014025:Titanium / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D020099:Coated Materials, Biocompatible; C009495:titanium dioxide; D014025:Titanium