Preparation, characteristics and feeble induced-apoptosis performance of non-dialysis requiring selenium nanoparticles@chitosan

Herein, we discuss the facile and general protocol to construct monodisperse chitosan-coated selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs@CS) without the need for dialysis in wet-chemical system and also investigate the toxicity of SeNPs@CS on enterocyte cells. The crystalline structure, morphology, and composition of the obtained product were examined by XRD, SEM-EDX, TEM, XPS and FT-IR, respectively, which indicates uniform and strong stability performance of the non-dialysis requiring SeNPs@CS. Intestinal porcine epithelial cells (IPEC-J2) were conducted to compare the cytotoxicity of SeNPs@CS and selenite at desired concentrations (ranging from 0.625 to 100 μM) for 4, 8, 12, and 24 h. The cytotoxicity study reveals that SeNPs@CS exhibited lower cytotoxicity than selenite in IPEC-J2 cells. From the further cell apoptosis examination, high concentration of SeNPs@CS (100 μM), compared with the selenite, did not affect related protein expressions in JNK/p38 MAPK signaling pathway, which is critical in predisposing mammalian cells to apoptosis. All the physio-chemical characterization and biological determination demonstrated that the non-dialysis requiring SeNPs@CS possesses the potentials to serve as safe and effective pharmaceutical or nutritional application. [Display omitted] •Non-dialysis requiring method to prepare a stable selenium nanoparticles@chitosan (SeNPs@CS) was designed and verified.•≥98% of selenite was transformed into the monodispersed SeNPs@CS in this wet-chemical system.•SeNPs@CS (up to100 μM) slightly decreased the enterocyte viability to 93.9% (24 h), whereas selenite was 62.6%.•The lower cytotoxicity of SeNPs@CS may be contributed to feeble activation of JNK/p38 MAPK.