Genotoxic and oxidative responses in coelomocytes of Eisenia fetida and Hediste diversicolor exposed to lipid-coated CdSe/ZnS quantum dots and CdCl2

The emerging of Quantum Dots utilization in industrial or medicinal fields involved a potentially increase of these nanoparticles in environment. In this work, the genotoxic (comet assay) and oxidative effects (SOD activity, TBARS) of functionalized-QDs and cadmium chloride were investigated on Hediste diversicolor and Eisenia fetida coelomocytes. Results demonstrated that functionalized-QDs (QDNs) and cadmium chloride induced DNA damages through different mechanisms that depended on the nano- or ionic nature of Cd. The minimal genotoxic concentrations for H. diversicolor (<0.001ng/g for QDNs and CdCl2) were lower than for E. fetida (between 0.01 and 0.1 ng/g for QDNs, and between 0.001 and 0.01 ng/g for CdCl2). These results showed that H. diversicolor was more sensitive than E. fetida. The two contaminants had a low impact on the oxidative stress markers. (c) 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 30: 918-926, 2015.