Synthesis, characterization and cytotoxicity of boron nitride nanoparticles: emphasis on toxicogenomics

Nanotechnology is increasingly developing area including more than 700 commercial products such as clothing, food preparation, cosmetics, mechanics, electronics and also health industry. People generally contact with nanoparticles by inhaling from air. Thus, it is becoming important issue to understand harmful effects of nanoparticles on human health and prepare risk reports for common nano-sized materials. In this paper, synthesis, characterization and cytotoxicity evaluation of boron nitride (BN) nanoparticles were performed on human primary alveolar epithelial cells (HPAEpiC) since, main exposure to nanoparticles would generally happen through lung via inhalation. Chemically synthetized BN nanoparticles were characterized by using X-ray crystallography, transmission electron microscope, scanning electron microscope and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy techniques. 3-(4,5-dimethyl-thiazol-2-yl) 2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide, neutral red and lactate dehydrogenase release assays were used to analyze cytotoxicity after nanoparticles exposure. Whole genome microarray analysis was used to find out the effects of BN NPs on gene expressions of HPAEpiC cells. Finally, the database for annotation, visualization and integrated discovery analysis was used to reveal relationships between different cellular pathways and nanoparticle exposure. According to cytotoxicity analysis LC 20 value for BN nanoparticles was 125.051 mg/L. Microarray results showed that 2159 genes expression change (FC ≥ 2) significantly over 40,000 genes analysis. When the gene pathways were analyzed, it was seemed that BN nanoparticles mostly affect cell cycle, cell–cell interactions, cancer affecting genes and signal transduction. In a conclusion, our results supported for the first time that BN nanoparticles could be used as a safe nanomaterial in both pharmacological and medical applications.