Mean serum levels of cytokines in Wistar rats exposed to Pd-NPs compared to control rats.

<p>Compared to control values, a rather particular trend was observed in all cytokine serum levels in the treated rats, with a slight decrease at the lowest exposure dose and an increase thereafter with increasing exposure doses. Indeed, the mean serum concentrations of all cytokines appeared to decrease after the administration of 0.012 μg/kg Pd-NPs, whereas their values exceeded the control levels at higher doses of exposure (0.12, 1.2 and 12 μg/kg).