Abstract
The new and unique applications offered by nanotechnology in diverse areas have made it so popular that it is being applied today in almost all aspects of daily life. Although the small size and subsequent larger surface area of nanoparticles (NPs) endow them with some highly useful and specific properties, it also renders them more active leading to unexpected and unanticipated consequences on interaction with biological systems. The concern over the probable adverse effects of nanomaterials on living systems has given rise to ‘nanotoxicology’. However, nanotoxicology has lagged far behind nanotechnology due to a number of experimental challenges and issues faced in designing studies involving toxicological assessment of nanomaterials. This review, therefore addresses some of the issues pertaining to nanomaterial toxicology with respect to nanomaterial characterization, agglomeration, dose metric and surface coating.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the funding received from CSIR network project – NWP35, SIP 008, DST-NSTI grant No. SR/S5/NM-01/2007 and UKIERI-DST grant No. DST/INT/UKIERI/SA/P-10/2008 project. VS thanks Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (New Delhi) for the award of Junior Research Fellowship IITR Communication no. 2707.
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.