Silver nanoparticles induce apoptosis in L5178Y lymphoma by lipoperoxide activity

The use of nanomaterials for cancer treatment is not a new concept, but the ability to kill the cells without harming surrounding healthy cells has significant potential. The field of nanomedicine is concerned with technology based on the development of materials at the nanometric scale. In this paper, apoptosis/proliferation and lipid peroxide activity were evaluated in L5178Y lymphoma cells after exposure of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) to different concentrations of nanomaterials. Ag-NPs showed absorption at 412 nm, with a diameter of 2�9 nm. The treatment of L5178Y lymphoma cells with Ag-NPs demonstrated a significant decrement in the cellular proliferation index at 9 ?g/mL; this result was supported with apoptosis determination, because at higher concentrations (>9 ?g/mL) of Ag-NPs we observed the maximum peaks. With regard to the apoptotic mechanism of the effects of Ag-NPs on cell viability, we evaluated the lipoperoxide activity, which showed an important increment at the same concentration of Ag-NPs (9�18 ?g/mL). We demonstrated that L5178Y lymphoma cells showed apoptosis induced by treatment with Ag-NPs; the possible mechanism of this effect could be the generation of lipoperoxides. Our study provides evidence for a molecular mechanism of Ag-NP-induced generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). � 2014 Inst Materials Physicss. All rights reserved