The impact of instilled carbide nanoparticles on rat lungs: an in vivo perspective on acute intratracheal instillation.

In order to study a scenario of acute high concentration exposure via the pulmonary pathway of silicon carbide and titanium carbide nanoparticles, female Wistar rats were administered by intratracheal instillation doses of 0.5 and 5 mg/rat of each nanomaterial. Inflammatory parameters were studied: protein concentration, lactate dehydrogenase activity, total cell count and differentiated cell count (macrophages, neutrophils, oesonophils, lymphocytes). The genotoxicity potential was assessed by the formation of micronuclei from
pneumocytes type II. It was found that silicon carbide nanoparticles induce an inflammatory response and a dose dependent genotoxicity, although the genotoxicity levels are comparably lower to the inflammatory response.