Investigating the in vitro toxicity of silica oxide nanoparticles on differentiated neuronal cells (PC12)

Background and aims: Silica oxide nanoparticles (SiO2-NPs) have attracted a great interest in biotechnology and medicinal fields. It has been documented SiO2-NPs can induce cytotoxicity in normal cells. However, until now, the cytotoxicity of SiO2-NPs against nervous system cells did not examine. Methods: In this in vitro study, the activities of caspase-8 and 6 were analyzed in the PC12 cells treated with different concentrations of silica oxide nanoparticles, and was assessed by Elisa plate reader. Data were analyzed using SPSS software, and by One-way ANOVA and Student t-test. Results: The results showed that the caspase-8 and 6 activities increased in a concentration dependent manner. Indeed, the activity of caspase-8 and 6 was induced after exposure to 1-100 µM of SiO2-NPs. However, the SiO2-NPs showed only slight toxicity in the concentration of 0.1 µM (P