Pulmonary Toxicity of Instilled Silver Nanoparticles: Influence of Size, Coating and Rat Strain
Fig 3
Representative haematoxylin- and carbo-chromotrope-stained lung sections from Brown-Norway (BN) rat lungs exposed to water only (Control) or to 20nm and 110 nm citrate- or pvp-capped silver nanoparticles (Panels A-E), and from Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats exposed to water only (Control) or to silver 20nm citrate- or pvp-capped nanoparticles (Panels F-H) at 24 hours after instillation.
Compared to controls, inflammatory responses with neutrophils (arrow heads) are seen in both BN and SD rats after nanoparticle instillation. BN rats show the a predominance of eosinophils, while in SD rats, the inflammation is predominantly neutrophilic (Scale bar on Panel G is 10 μm, as used throughout). Panel I shows the distribution of inflammatory scores in these experiments with median bars shown for each experimental group. C is control rats instilled with water alone. *p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001 compared to C; #p<0.05 compared to appropriate Brown-Norway group.