A Complete In Vitro Toxicological Assessment of the Biological Effects of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles: From Acute Toxicity to Multi-Dose Subchronic Cytotoxicity Study

Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) are of significant relevance due to their unique properties, which have been exploited for widespread applications. Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeO2-NPs) one most ENM in the industry excellent catalytic and multi-enzyme mimetic properties. Thus, toxicological effects these ENMs should be further studied. In this study, acute subchronic toxicity CeO2-NPs were assessed. First, an vitro multi-dose short-term (24 h) assessment was performed three different cell lines: A549 Calu3 used represented lung tissue 3T3 as interstitial model. After that, a sub-chronic (90 days) NPs carried out on realistic well-established reconstituted primary human airway epithelial model (MucilAir™), cultured at Air–Liquid Interface (ALI), study long-term particles. Results showed minor exposures. However, exposures, cytotoxic inflammatory responses observed after 60 days exposure CeO2-NPs. These results suggest that approaches may underestimate effect some ENMs, highlighting need studies order accurately assess cumulative organisms.