Challenge in understanding size and shape dependent toxicity of gold nanomaterials in human skin keratinocytes

• DOI: 10.1016/j.cplett.2008.08.039
• Publication Date: 2008-08-16T09:34:16Z
• Authors: Shuguang Wang; Wentong Lu; Oleg Tovmachenko; Uma Shanker Rai; Hongtao Yu; Paresh Chandra Ray
• Keywords: 01 natural sciences; 0104 chemical sciences

As the nanotechnology field continues to develop, assessing nanoparticle toxicity is very important for advancing nanoparticles for biomedical application. Here we report cytotoxicity of gold nanomaterial of different size and shape using MTT test, absorption spectroscopy and TEM. Spherical gold nanoparticles with different sizes are not inherently toxic to human skin cells, but gold nanorods are highly toxic due to the presence of CTAB as coating material. Due to CTAB toxicity, and aggregation of gold nanomaterials in the presence of cell media, it is a real challenge to study the cytotoxicity of gold nanomaterials individually.