| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 環境衛生研究所 === 101 === Nowadays, asthma is one of the most common airway inflammatory disease and its prevalence is high in developed and developing countries. A wide range of silver nanoparticle applications has emerged in consumer products ranging from disinfecting medical devices to water treatment. We are interested in the inhalation toxicity of silver nanoparticles in susceptible allergic asthmatic mice.
In this study, silver nanoparticles were produced in a generation system. The BALB/c mice were divided into normal group (PBS) and asthmatic group (induced by OVA injection). These two groups were further exposed for filtered air (FA) (PBS/FA (N=5)、OVA/FA (N=5)) and silver nanoparticles (NP) (PBS/NP (N=6)、OVA/NP (N=5)) 6 hours a day for one week.
The average size and concentration of NP during exposure was 32.78 nm at 3.34 mg/m3. The inflammation and asthma markers including IgE in serum, IL-13, total protein, total cells, proportion of neutrophils, macrophages and eosinophils in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and AHR (airway hyperresponsiveness) were determined.
The results showed that animals had adverse health effects after exposure to AgNPs (silver nanoparticles). In normal group, percentage of neutrophils, eosinophils and total cells in BALF increased after AgNPs exposure as compared to FA control. In asthma group, IgE, IL-13, AHR and total cells also increased after AgNPs exposure as compared to FA control but it was not statistically significant. These results suggested that asthmatic model needs further modification. Additionally, some previous experiments showed that AgNPs might act as anti-inflammatory agents. Thus，further studies are needed to assess the toxicity of AgNPs in allergic asthma model.
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