title: Nanoparticles skin absorption: New aspects for a safety profile evaluation.
abstract: Nanoparticles (NPs) skin absorption is a wide issue, which needs to be better understood. The attempt of this review is to summarize the scientific evidence concerning open questions, i.e.: the role of NPs intrinsic characteristics (size, shape, charge, surface properties), the penetration of NPs through the intact or impaired skin barrier, the penetration pathways which should be considered and the role of NPs interaction in physiological media. The outcomes suggest that one main difference should be made between metal and non-metal NPs. Both kinds have a secondary NPs size which is given after interaction in physiological media, and allows a size-dependent skin penetration: NPs⩽4nm can penetrate and permeate intact skin, NPs size between 4 and 20nm can potentially permeate intact and damaged skin, NPs size between 21 and 45nm can penetrate and permeate only damaged skin, NPs size>45nm cannot penetrate nor permeate the skin. Other aspects play an important role, mostly for metal NPs, i.e., dissolution in physiological media, which can cause local and systemic effects, the sensitizing or toxic potential and the tendency to create aggregates. This paper suggests a decision tree to evaluate the potential risk for consumers and workers exposed to NPs.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Unit of Occupational Medicine, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, via della Pietà 19, 1-34100 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Larese Filon
authors.affiliation: Clinical Unit of Occupational Medicine, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, via della Pietà 19, 1-34100 Trieste, Italy. Electronic address: marcella.mauro82@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Marcella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mauro
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Trieste, via Giorgieri, 1-34127 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Gianpiero
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Adami
authors.affiliation: Clinical Unit of Occupational Medicine, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Trieste, via della Pietà 19, 1-34100 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bovenzi
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Trieste, via Giorgieri, 1-34127 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Crosera
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000633:toxicity*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012867:Skin / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D012869:Skin Absorption
keywords: Nanoparticles interaction in physiological media; Nanoparticles size; Nanoparticles skin absorption; Review; Shape; Surface properties