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Review
. 2015 Aug 19;5(3):1351-1365.
doi: 10.3390/nano5031351.

Role of Physicochemical Properties in Nanoparticle Toxicity

Seung Won Shin  1 , In Hyun Song  2 , Soong Ho Um  3   4
Affiliations
Review

Role of Physicochemical Properties in Nanoparticle Toxicity

Seung Won Shin et al. Nanomaterials (Basel). .

Abstract

With the recent rapid growth of technological comprehension in nanoscience, researchers have aimed to adapt this knowledge to various research fields within engineering and applied science. Dramatic advances in nanomaterials marked a new epoch in biomedical engineering with the expectation that they would have huge contributions to healthcare. However, several questions regarding their safety and toxicity have arisen due to numerous novel properties. Here, recent studies of nanomaterial toxicology will be reviewed from several physiochemical perspectives. A variety of physiochemical properties such as size distribution, electrostatics, surface area, general morphology and aggregation may significantly affect physiological interactions between nanomaterials and target biological areas. Accordingly, it is very important to finely tune these properties in order to safely fulfill a bio-user's purpose.

Keywords: nanomaterials; nanotoxicology; physiological properties.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The number of nanoscience papers indexed in Scopus between 2000 and 2014. Source: “Nanoparticle”, data from Scopus.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic drawing of nanoparticle induced cytotoxicity. Intrinsic features of nanoparticles, such as size, surface charge, agglomeration, can significantly affect cytotoxicity. Such cytotoxicity can be affected at the levels of the cell, organ and even in vivo systems.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Gold nanoparticle distribution in several organs in rat according to particle size (nm).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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