Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. The objectives of the current study were to determine the lung toxicity of CNC and the underlying molecular mechanisms of the toxicity. Significant increases in lactate dehydrogenase activity, pro-inflammatory cytokine levels, phagocyte oxidant production, and macrophage and neutrophil counts were detected in the bronchoalveolar lavage cells or fluid from the CNC exposed rats.
Mild lung histological changes, such as the accumulation of macrophages and neutrophils, were detected in the CNC exposed rats. Gene expression profiling by next generation sequencing identified genes whose expressions were significantly different in the lungs of the CNC exposed rats, compared with the controls. Bioinformatic analysis of the lung gene expression data identified significant enrichment in several biological functions and canonical pathways including those related to inflammation cellular movement, immune cell trafficking, inflammatory diseases and response, respiratory disease, complement system, acute phase response, leukocyte extravasation signaling, granulocyte and agranulocyte adhesion and diapedesis, IL signaling, and phagosome formation and maturation and oxidative stress NRF2-mediated oxidative stress response, production of nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species in macrophages, and free radical scavenging.
Our data demonstrated that inhalation exposure of rats to CNC resulted in lung toxicity mediated mainly through the induction of inflammation and oxidative stress. Keywords: Cellulose nanocrystal CNC , lung toxicity, rat, mechanisms, gene expression, inflammation, oxidative stress. Cellulose, the most abundant organic polymer in the biosphere, is formed by hydrogen bonding between adjacent glucose monomers and is a major component of plants, bacteria, fungi, and tunicates Siro and Plackett Cellulose, widely considered as nontoxic, has numerous applications.
It is a major component of the food cycle. Cellulose insulation, manufactured by the shredding and milling of old newspapers and the addition of fire retardant s , is widely used as a type of thermal insulation in the construction industry Morgan Aerosolization of respirable cellulose particles, during the manufacture and use of cellulose insulation is possible resulting in exposure of workers to the particles.
Based on the results of human studies, the NTP has concluded that inhalation exposure to the cellulose particles generated from cellulose insulation resulted in only minimal pulmonary toxicity which is attributed mainly to the chemical elements present in the fire retardant s added during manufacturing the cellulose insulation Morgan Nanocellulose can be generated from large sized cellulose fibers either by physical or chemical processing.
