Characterization and toxicology evaluation of zirconium oxide nanoparticles on the embryonic development of zebrafish, Danio rerio

Abstract

Zirconia oxide nanoparticles (ZrO₂NPs) are known to be one of the neutral bioceramic metal compounds that has been widely used for their beneficial applications in many biomedical areas, in dental implants, bone joint replacements, drug delivery vehicles, and in various industrial applications. To study the effects of ZrO₂NPs on zebrafish model, we used early life stages of the zebrafish (Danio rerio) to examine such effects on embryonic development in this species. ZrO₂NPs were synthesized by the sol-gel method, size about 15–20 nm and characterized by SEM, EDX, XRD, FTIR, UV-Vis Spectra. In this study, zebrafish embryos were treated with ZrO₂NPs 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 μg of nanoparticles/ml during 24–96 hour post fertilization (hpf). The results showed that ≥0.5–1 μg/ml of ZrO₂NPs instigated developmental acute toxicity in these embryos, causing mortality, hatching delay, and malformation. ZrO₂NPs exposure induced axis bent, tail bent, spinal cord curvature, yolk-sac, and pericardial edema. A typical phenotype was observed as an unhatched dead embryo at ≥1 μg/ml of ZrO₂NPs exposure. This study is one of the first reports on developmental toxicity of zebrafish embryos caused by zirconium oxide nanoparticles in aquatic environments. Our results show that exposure of zirconium oxide nanoparticles is more toxic to embryonic zebrafish at lower concentrations. The results will contribute to the current understanding of the potential biomedical toxicological effects of nanoparticles and support the safety evaluation and synthesis of Zirconia oxide nanoparticles.

Keywords:

• Zirconia oxide nanoparticles
• nanotoxicity
• Zebrafish embryo
• early embryonic development
• malformation

Acknowledgments

Authors acknowledge the UGC-PDFWM, University Grants Commission, and DST-FIST sponsored program, Department of Science Technology, Fund for Improvement of S&T infrastructure in universities & higher educational institutions (DST-FIST: S/FST/ESI-101/2010), New Delhi, India.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by DST, UGC.