Gene expression profiles related to apoptosis and levels of DNA oxidative damage in primary dermal fibroblast cells (ATCC® PCS-201-012TM) treated with zirconium oxide nanoparticles

Nanoparticles have attracted growing interest in recent years. They are small and can easily penetrate into cells. We investigated the genotoxic, cytotoxic, and apoptotic effects of zirconium nanoparticles on dermal fibroblast cells, the comet assay, Xcelligence system, and apoptotic gene expression, respectively. The comet assay analysis showed a non-signifcant increase in the genetic damage index and the percentage of damaged cells in the groups exposed to 10 and 20-nm zirconium oxide nanoparticles. Xcelligence system analysis observed a decrease in the indices of cells exposed to 10 and 20 nm zirconium oxide nanoparticles in the 48th-hour, 72nd-hour, and 96th-hour data. It was observed that caspase 3 and caspase 8 gene expression levels were suppressed in cells exposed to 10 and 20 nm zirconium oxide nanoparticles. Compared to the negative control group, this suppression was significant in the 10 nm groups (p < 0.01) while it was not significant in the 20 nm groups. Although zirconium oxide nanoparticles do not show toxicity and genotoxicity at a given concentration, but the overall mechanism is still not clear regarding the consequences of these nanoparticles use and its efect on living system. However, our apoptotic gene expression studies concluded that the nanoparticle size, particularly 10 nm, had an impact on gene expression.