The Possible Impact of Zinc on the Bioaccumulation and Lethality of Nano-aluminum Oxide Particles in Rats

Abstract

The toxicity of nanoalumina (Al2O3NPs) as a result of accumulation in the tissues of living organisms has been recognized since the last decades of the twentieth centuries. It has been found that zinc, as bulk zinc salt, acts to encounter the accumulation of aluminum ions, due to its chemical interaction with this metal, and this gives zinc an excellent therapeutic potentials to counteract and possibly lessen its notorious toxicity. Nanomaterials, because of their physical and chemical properties, have a substantial ability to penetrate the biological membranes, including cell membrane, blood-brain, and testicle barriers among many others in living organisms. Nanoparticles, in general, are more capable of gradual accumulation inside the cells and vital organelles where they are retained until they reach concentrations sufficient to induce sever cellular toxicity. Accordingly, the hypothesis of this study is based on the rationale that nano-zinc oxide (ZnONPs) particles, with their presumably high penetration and accumulation capacity would be even more efficient in encountering the aluminum nanoparticles toxicity. To the author’s knowledge, and after thorough literature search, there is no mention of previous studies to evaluate the interactions between Al oxide nanoparticles with either nano-zinc or bulk zinc in mammalian tissues. This work attempts, for the first time, to compare and provide a full coverage of the bioaccumulation pattern of aluminum nanoparticles in tissues in the