Prolonged feeding of terrestrial isopod (Porcellio scaber, Isopoda, Crustacea) on TiO2 nanoparicles. Absence of toxic effect

By

Novak, Sara
Drobne, Damjana
menard, anja

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2012

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

176

Pages

261-273

Subjects

isopods , Porcellio scaber , prolonged feeding , TiO2 nanoparticles , toxic effects

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.176.2463

 

Abstract

Nanoparticles of titanium dioxide are one of most widely used nanomaterials in different products in everyday use and in industry, but very little is known about their effects on non- target cells and tissues. Terrestrial isopods were exposed to food dosed with nano-TiO2 to give final nominal concentration 1000 and 2000 µg TiO2/g dry weight of food. The effects of ingested nano-TiO2 on the model invertebrate Porcellio scaber (Isopoda, Crustacea) after short-term (3 and 7 days) and prolonged (14 and 28 days) dietary exposure was assessed by conventional toxicity measures such as feeding rate, weight change and mortality. Cell membrane destabilization was also investigated. No severe toxicity effects were observed after 3, 7, 14 or 28 days of dietary exposure to nano-TiO2, but some animals, particularly those exposed to lower concentrations of nanoparticles, had severely destabilized digestive cell membranes. It was concluded that strong destabilization of the cell membrane was sporadic, and neither concentration- nor time-related. Further research is needed to confirm this sporadic toxic effect of nanoparticles.