Exposure to Silver Nanoparticles Induces Size- and Dose-dependent Oxidative Stress and Cytotoxicity in Human Colon Carcinoma Cells
In this clinical study, published in the journal Toxicology In Vitro in July 2014, clinical researchers set out to evaluate the effects of silver nanoparticles against human colon cancer cells. The researchers tested “the size-dependent effects of AgNPs by treating the human LoVo cell line, an intestinal epithelium model, with spherical AgNPs of well-defined sizes (10, 20, 40, 60 and 100nm).”
In other words, they decided to test silver particles of five different particle sizes against colon cancer cells.
Results: The smaller the silver particles were, the more effectively they penetrated the cancer cells, resulting in “the stimulation of a signaling cascade that generated ROS and inflammatory markers, leading to mitochondrial dysfunction and subsequently inducing apoptosis.” In other words, the smallest silver particles caused the colon cancer cells to self-destruct, whereas the largest of the silver particles (100 nm) could not even penetrate the cancer cells.
