Hepatic effect of subacute Fe2O3 nanoparticles exposure in Sprague–Dawley rats by LC–MS/MS based lipidomics

Fe2O3 nanoparticles (Fe2O3 NPs) are one of the components of food additives numbered E172 and have been widely used as food pigments to color sweets. Although a large number of studies have reported that Fe2O3 NPs could induce hepatotoxicity, the pathogenesis is still unclear, especially the subacute effects on the metabolic network after oral exposure. Therefore, it is necessary to define a highly sensitive strategy to investigate the potential effects of Fe2O3 NPs and the mechanism. In this study, an animal experiment showed that Fe2O3 NPs had no obvious toxic effects on body weight, histopathology and oxide stress. In order to further investigate the potential effects of Fe2O3 NPs in vivo, a more sensitive LC–MS/MS‐based lipidomic study was performed. The results of multivariate statistical analysis and western blot analysis showed that Fe2O3 NP exposure significantly affects the hepatic glycerophospholipid metabolism, decreasing triacylglycerol, diglyceride, lysophosphatidylethanolamine and free fatty acids, and increasing phosphatidylcholine, lysophosphatidylinositol and coenzyme Q9. These data provide further insight into the hepatic subacute effects of Fe2O3 NPs obtained by conventional toxicology methods.