Acute toxicity and oxidative damage induced by silica nanorattle in vivo

Hollow mesoporous nanomaterial is a kind of promising new drug delivery system due to their unique hollow structures. In order to evaluate the toxicity of silica nanorattle (SN) particles in vivo, 40 female mice were used in this study to investigate the acute toxicity and oxidative damage. Mice were intravenously injected with SN suspension in sterile 5% glucose at 40, 80 and 240 mg/kg, respectively. The control group was administrated with equal-volume 5% glucose. Weight, feed intake, hematology analysis, blood biochemical assay and histopathology diagnosis were examined. The activities of SOD, GSH and CAT were measured as well. The results demonstrated that the levels of ALT and AST in the mice treated with 240 mg/kg SN increased significantly as compared with the control group (P < 0.05), whereas the contents of BUN and CREA changed unremarkably. The activity of SOD induced by SN in the liver decreased significantly (P < 0.05). In summary, this study revealed that liver was the target organ of the SN. It also can be concluded that activity of SOD played an important role in liver injury caused by SN.