Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) are increasingly being used in commercial products, particularly in the biomedical, cosmetic, and clothing industries. For example, pants and shirts are routinely manufactured with silver nanoparticles to render them 'wrinkle-free.' Despite the growing applications, the associated environmental health and safety (EHS) impacts are completely unknown. The significance of this problem became pervasive within the general public when Prince Charles authored an article in 2004 warning of the potential social, ethical, health, and environmental issues connected to nanotechnology. The EHS concerns, however, continued to receive relatively little consideration from federal agencies as compared with large investments in basic nanoscience R&D. The mounting literature regarding the toxicology of ENMs (e.g., the ability of inhaled nanoparticles to cross the blood-brain barrier; Kwon et al., 2008, J. Occup. Health 50, 1) has spurred a recent realization within the NNI and other federal agencies that the EHS impacts related to nanotechnology must be addressed now. In our study we proposed to address critical aspects of this problem by developing primary correlations between nanoparticle properties and their effects on cell health and toxicity. A critical challenge embodied within this problem arises from the ability to synthesize nanoparticles with a wide array of physical properties (e.g., size, shape, composition, surface chemistry, etc.), which in turn creates an immense, multidimensional problem in assessing toxicological effects. In this work we first investigated varying sizes of quantum dots (Qdots) and their ability to cross cell membranes based on their aspect ratio utilizing hyperspectral confocal fluorescence microscopy. We then studied toxicity of epithelial cell lines that were exposed to different sized gold and silver nanoparticles using advanced imaging techniques, biochemical analyses, and optical and mass spectrometry methods. Finally we evaluated a new assay to measure transglutaminase (TG) activity; a potential marker for cell toxicity.
