Nanoparticle immunotoxicity using an environmental sentinel as a model

目前，人们对人类和动物接触纳米颗粒可能对健康和环境造成的影响知之甚少，这些纳米颗粒正越来越多地被用于常见的家庭用品。人们对纳米粒子的担忧之一是，由于它们的尺寸很小，它们的行为可能与其他化学品不同。到目前为止，大多数关于纳米颗粒毒性效应的研究都只着眼于对体外细胞的影响。一些动物研究已经完成，但这些研究大多只观察最严重的影响(如死亡！)。从进行的纳米颗粒毒性研究中，已经看到的一个毒性效应是影响保护身体免受疾病侵袭的免疫系统的效率。在这个项目中，我们将详细研究金属作为纳米颗粒、块状材料和溶解的游离金属形式对一种常见的英国蚯蚓物种免疫系统细胞工作的影响。我们选择使用蚯蚓，不仅仅是因为这些动物很常见，很容易饲养(尽管这是真的)；还因为蚯蚓的免疫系统通过自由循环细胞的活动来工作，这些细胞与人类和其他哺乳动物中的细胞非常相似。将采集的免疫细胞和完整的蠕虫暴露在锌和钛纳米颗粒、块状化学物质和溶解的锌中后，我们将测量免疫细胞的活性。为了了解我们看到的任何变化，我们还将进行进一步的测量，以观察不同金属形态对免疫细胞内部工作的影响，并使用显微镜方法找出大多数纳米颗粒最终进入细胞的哪一部分。这将帮助我们更清楚地了解金属纳米颗粒暴露对蚯蚓和其他物种的免疫细胞的影响。

At the moment, little in known about the possible health and environmental effects of exposure of people and animals to the nanoparticles that are increasingly being used in common household good. One of the fears about nanoparticles is that due to their small size, they may not behave like other chemicals. Most studies on the toxic effects of nanoparticle done so far have looked at effects only on cells maintained outside the body. A few studies with whole animals have been done, but these have mostly looked only at the most severe effects (like death!). From the studies of nanoparticles toxicity conducted, one toxic effect that has been seen is an affect on the efficiency of the immune system that protects the body against disease. In this project we will look in detail at how exposure to metals as nanoparticles, as bulk materials and as the dissolved free metal form impacts on the workings of cells of the immune system of a common UK earthworm species. Our choice to use earthworms is not made merely because these animals are common and easy to keep (although this is true); it is also because the immune system of earthworms work through the activity of free circulating cells that are very similar to those found in humans and other mammals. After exposing collected immune cells and intact worms to zinc and titanium nanoparticles, bulk chemical and dissolved Zn we will measure the activities of immune cell. To understand any changes we see will also conducted further measurement to look at the effects of the different metal forms on the internal workings of the immune cells and use a microscope method to find out in which part of the cells most of the nanoparticles end up in. This will help us have a much clearer picture of what the effects of metal nanoparticle exposure may be for immune cells in earthworm and other species.