The prevalent use and incorporation of engineered nanoparticles in consumer products increases the likelihood of their interaction with environmental and biological systems, and thus, has fostered research efforts to understand their potential risks and implications. Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) is an ideal model organism for nanotoxicity studies mainly due to this nematode’s short life span, ease of culturing, and transparency, which allows for visualization of changes in nematode morphology in the presence of toxicants. This study presents the results of size-dependent uptake of AuNPs by C. elegans. Nematodes were exposed to 80, 100, and 150 citrate-stabilized AuNPs for 24 h at equal Au mass fraction and equal particle number concentrations. A unique sucrose density gradient centrifugation protocol was employed to separate the nematodes from AuNPs freely suspended in the exposure media in nematode samples. AuNP uptake was quantified via conventional- and single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analyses. Secondary ion mass spectrometry analysis was also employed for verification and localization of AuNP uptake. Elemental mass spectrometry results (ICP-MS and SIMS; Figure 1) suggested a size dependent AuNP uptake as we found an increase in total Au uptake (related to Au concentration) for the 80 and 100 nm AuNPs, however there was reduced uptake for the 150 nm AuNP exposure condition. The analysis of the liberated AuNPs in C. elegans revealed an alteration in the size distribution of NPs, which may be a result of the NPs being exposed to physiological processes (gut compaction) within the nematode.

Evaluation of size-dependent gold nanoparticle uptake in Caenorhabditis elegans using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and imaging techniques

254th National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.