Nanotechnology congress & Expo

Biography

Biography: Tamara Milivojević

Abstract

The increase in the production of nanomaterials in the past decades introduced both positive and negative prospects in the consumer goods. ZnO nanoparticles are amongst the most frequently used and globally produced nanomaterials. Oral ingestion is one of the already acknowledged exposure routes for the unintentional consumption of ZnO nanoparticles with negative implications. Our goal was to study the effects of chronic dietary exposure to ZnO nanoparticles on chosen cardiac parameters. For this purpose Wistar rats were treated daily with oral doses of 4.76 and 47.60 mg ZnO nanoparticles/kg of body weight during chronic six week exposure. Although the isolated heart model was previously used to study nanoparticle effect on cardiac parameters, this is the first use of the isolated heart model for the study of negative effects of ZnO nanoparticles. We studied cardiac function in terms of ventricle developed pressure, heart rate, coronary flow and the presence of arrhythmia. Our data shows that the chronic consumption of ZnO nanoparticles induces dose-dependent cardiotoxic effect on Wistar rats. We observed impaired cardiac function in terms of decreased left ventricle developed pressure and coronary flow, and the generation of ventricular tachycardia. In the absence of similar studies, this is the first evidence of direct negative implications of the chronic oral ingestion of ZnO nanoparticles on the heart function. The present study introduces new views on previous knowledge regarding lowest observed effect concentration in terms of the chronic dietary exposure to ZnO nanoparticles.