Objective: Nanotechnology is one of the most exciting and fastest growing areas in science. Nanomaterials offer great promise for medical applications. One of them is quantum dots in the size range of 2–100 nm possessing unique tunable optical and targeting properties. Quantum dots have potential in biomedical applications, but concerns persist about their safety. Most toxicology data is derived from in vitro studies and may not reflect in vivo responses. Here, an initial systematic animal toxicity study of CdSe quantum dots in healthy BALB-C mice is presented. animal survival, animal mass and organ histology are characterized.
Materials and methods: To this, 10 mg/kg, 20 and 40 mg/kg doses of cdse were injected to some adult male Mice and structural and optical properties of quantum dots were studied by XRD, UV-Vis absorption spectrum and Scaning Tunneling Microscopy and the testis and lung weight of various groups were analyzed using SPSS 16 program (one way ANOVA test).
Results: Histological studies of testis tissue showed no significant effect on morphology and structure of testis seminiferous tubes, and number of sperm stem cell., and reduction in number cells. also histological study of lung tissue showed in 20 and 40 mg/kg doses destruction in interstitial and epithelium tissues.
Conclusion: On the whole, this study showed high toxicity of cdse on lung tissue even in lower doses and . the lack of structural modification of the testicular tissue . That it is Consistent with the results other research based on with other nanoparticle-induced pulmonary hight toxicity considering lack of literature review in this field, this study can be an introduction to researches about in vivo toxicity effect of quantum dots on various organs