Research Paper Volume 16, Issue 20 pp 13012—13024
On the lifespan of Enchytraeus crypticus - impact of iron (nanomaterial and salt) on aging
- 1 Department of Biology and CESAM, University of Aveiro, Aveiro 3810-193, Portugal
- 2 Department of Ecoscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus DK-8000, Denmark
Received: February 1, 2024 Accepted: July 16, 2024 Published: October 24, 2024
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.206134How to Cite
Copyright: © 2024 Gomes et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Iron oxide nanomaterials (Fe3O4 NMs) have important biomedical and environmental applications, e.g. drug delivery, chemotherapy, magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents, etc. However, the environmental risks of such Fe3O4 are not fully assessed, particularly for soil living invertebrates, which are among the ones in the first line of exposure. Research has showed that longer-term exposure time is required to assess hazards of NMs, not predicted when based on shorter time and are therefore recommended. Thus, in the present study the effects of Fe3O4 NMs and FeCl3 were assessed in the terrestrial environment, using the soil model species Enchytraeus crypticus (Oligochaeta), throughout its entire lifespan (202 days). Two animals’ density were used: 1 (D1) and 40 (D40) animals per replicate, in LUFA 2.2 soil. The endpoints were survival and reproduction monitored over-time, up to 202 days. Results showed that density clearly affected the toxicity response, with higher toxicity and lower lifespan in D1 compared to D40. Overall, FeCl3 was more toxic than Fe3O4 NM in terms of reproduction, however, adult animals can be at higher (long-term) risk when exposed to Fe3O4 NM. Differences might be linked to slower Fe kinetics for the Fe3O4 NMs, i.e., slower Fe dissolution and release of ions.