Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 8 pp 12194—12206
CdSe/ZnS quantum dots exhibited nephrotoxicity through mediating oxidative damage and inflammatory response
- 1 Department of Nephrology, Cangzhou Central Hospital, Cangzhou, Hebei Province, China
- 2 Pediatrics Department, Cangzhou Central Hospital, Cangzhou, Hebei Province, China
Received: January 17, 2020 Accepted: July 13, 2020 Published: November 16, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103774How to Cite
Copyright: © 2021 Li et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Objective: This study aimed to the evaluate the nephrotoxicity of CdSe/ZnS QDs in vitro and vivo, as well as investigate the underlying toxicity mechanisms.
Results: In vitro experiments showed that compared with control cells, CdSe/ZnS QDs treatment significantly inhibited cell viability and promoted cell apoptosis in dose-dependent manner in NRK cells. Notably, CdSe/ZnS QDs treatment increased the contents of MDA and ROS, and decreased the activities of SOD, CAT and GSH-Px; however, the co-treatment of NAC and QDs relieved the oxidative damage of NRK cells. Moreover, in vivo experiments also revealed that CdSe/ZnS QDs treatment obviously increased kidney weight coefficient, damaged the kidney function, as well as induced inflammatory response and inhibited the activation of NRF2/Keap1 pathway in kidney tissues of mice.
Conclusions: CdSe/ZnS QDs exhibited obvious nephrotoxicity by mediating oxidative damage and inflammatory response in vitro and in vivo via NRF2/Keap1 pathway.
Methods: The characterization of CdSe/ZnS QDs was analyzed by transmission electron microscope, emission spectrum scanning, and dynamic light scattering. Rat kidney cells (NRK) were exposed to different doses of CdSe/ZnS QDs with or without N-acetylcysteine (NAC, antioxidant). Then, cellular uptake of CdSe/ZnS QDs was detected, and in vitro cytotoxicity was evaluated by MTT assay and TUNEL assay.