Comparative iron oxide nanoparticle cellular dosimetry and response in mice by the inhalation and liquid cell culture exposure routes.

Background: Toxicity testing the rapidly growing number of nanomaterials requires large scale use of in vitro systems under the presumption that these systems are sufficiently predictive or descriptive of responses in in vivo systems for effective use in hazard ranking. We hypothesized that improved relationships between in vitro and in vivo models of experimental toxicology for nanomaterials would result from placing response data in vitro and in vivo on the same dose scale, the amount of material associated with cells.

Methods: Balb/c mice were exposed nose-only to an aerosol (68.