Evaluation of cytotoxicity, morphological alterations and oxidative stress in Chinook salmon cells exposed to copper oxide nanoparticles

The current study is aimed to study cytotoxicity and oxidative stress mediated changes induced by copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) in Chinook salmon cells (CHSE-214). To this end, a number of biochemical responses are evaluated in CHSE-214 cells which are as follows [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazoliumbromide] MTT, neutral red uptake (NRU), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), protein carbonyl (PC), lipid peroxidation (LPO), oxidised glutathione (GSSG), reduced glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione sulfo-transferase (GST), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), 8-Hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) and reactive oxygen species (ROS), respectively. The 50 % inhibition concentration (IC50) of CuO NPs to CHSE-214 cells after 24 h exposure was found to be 19.026 μg ml−1. Viability of cells was reduced by CuO NPs, and the decrease was dose dependent as revealed by the MTT and NRU assay. CHSE-214 cells exposed to CuO NPs induced morphological changes. Initially, cells started to detach from the surface (12 h), followed by polyhedric, fusiform appearance (19 h) and finally the cells started to shrink. Later, the cells started losing their cellular contents leading to their death only after 24 h. LDH, PC, LPO, GSH, GPx, GST, SOD, CAT, 8-OHdG and ROS responses were seen significantly increased with the increase in the concentration of CuO NPs when compared to their respective controls. However, significant decrease in GSSG was perceptible in CHSE-214 cells exposed to CuO NPs in a dose-dependent manner. Our data demonstrated that CuO NPs induced cytotoxicity in CHSE-214 cells through the mediation of oxidative stress. The current study provides a baseline for the CuO NPs-mediated cytotoxic assessment in CHSE-214 cells for the future studies.