Beneficial effects of bioinspired silver nanoparticles on zebrafish embryos including a gene expression study.

Background And Purpose: Many sectors use nanoparticles and dispose of them in the aquatic environment without deciding the fate of these particles.

Experimental Approach: To identify a benign species of nanoparticles which can cause minimum harm to the aquatic environment, a comparative study was done with chemically synthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and green tea mediated synthesis (GT/AgNP) in both in vitro using human alveolar cancer cell line (A549) and normal cell line (L132), and in in vivo with zebrafish embryos.

Key Results: The in vitro studies revealed that GT/AgNPs were less toxic to normal cells than cancer cells. The GT/AgNPs showed high biocompatibility for zebrafish embryos monitored microscopically for their developmental stages and by cumulative hatchability studies. The reduced hatchability found in the AgNPs-treated group was correlated by differential gene expression of zebrafish hatching enzymes (ZHE) (ZHE1 and ZHE2).

Conclusion: The results indicated that nanoparticles can affect the hatching of zebrafish embryos and elicit toxicity at the gene level.