随着纳米技术的发展，纳米颗粒已经成为现代社会一种最主要的颗粒物暴露来源之一。因此，纳米颗粒所导致的可能健康效应获得了广泛关注。其中，纳米颗粒的血管健康效应是目前很受关注的一个科学问题。泡沫细胞主要是由巨噬细胞和血管平滑肌细胞转化而来，泡沫细胞的形成与典型心脑血管疾病例如动脉粥样硬化的发生发展有密切的联系。正因为如此，研究纳米颗粒对泡沫细胞形成的影响及其分子机理对理解纳米颗粒的血管健康效应有着重要意义。在本项目中，我们将使用人类巨噬细胞和平滑肌细胞作为主要细胞模型，研究不同性质纳米颗粒对这些细胞转化成为泡沫细胞的影响。这些不同性质的纳米颗粒包括多壁碳纳米管（不同长度与是否带有羧基基团），纳米氧化锌与纳米二氧化钛。分子机理方面，我们将重点考察纳米颗粒导致的溶酶体损伤与泡沫细胞形成之间的关系。我们预计，本项目将进一步理解纳米颗粒的物理化学性质对泡沫细胞形成的影响，为纳米颗粒的安全使用打下基础。

With the rapid development of nanotechnologies, nanoparticles (NPs) have become the most important source for particle exposure in modern society. Therefore, there is a concern about the adverse health effects of NP exposure. Of them, NP induced vascular health effect is an attractive scientific issue. Foam cells are derived primarily from macrophages and vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC), and the formation of foam cells is closely related with the development of typical cardiovascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis. As such, studying the effects of NPs on foam cell formation and the molecular mechanisms is crucial for us to understand the adverse vascular effects of NPs. In the proposed project, we will use human macrophages and VSMC as the main in vitro models and investigate the transformation of these cells into foam cells by NP exposure. The NPs include multi-walled carbon nanotubes (with different length and functionalized with carboxyl group), ZnO NPs and TiO(2) NPs. We will also investigate the possible relationship between lysosomal damage and foam cell formation as the molecular mechanism. We expect that the project will provide important information for understanding the influence of physicochemical properties of NPs on foam cell formation, and provide a basis for the safe use of NPs in the future.