Introduction: Silica oxide nanoparticles (SiO2NPs) have a dominant medical role because of their fundamental characteristics. They have a wide range size (from 5 to 1000 nm). They possess unique optical properties, high specific surface area, low density, adsorption capacity, capacity for encapsulation, and biocompatibility. These features led to their wide use in biomedical applications as catalyst supports, drug carriers, and gene delivery. However, little is known about their possible cytotoxic effects, especially with their wide biodistibution on different organs has been reported.
Aim of the work: To assess the effect of different doses and durations of intravenous injections of SiO2NPs on the hepatic tissue structure of adult male albino rats.
Materials and Methods: Forty Wistar male adult albino rats were divided randomly into three groups. Group I; served as control group, group II; injected with 10 mg/kg SiO2NPs for two and four weeks and group III; injected with 30 mg/kg SiO2NPs for two and four weeks. All doses were given by intravenous injection in the tail vein. At the end of the experiment, liver of all rats was dissected out and processed for histological, immunohistochemical and ultrastructure study. Morphometric measurements and statistical analysis were also performed.
Results: SiO2NPs injections didn't affect the hepatic lobular organization in any dose or duration. However, they caused hepatocytes structural changes, hepatic granulomatous inflammatory reaction accompanied by localized fibrosis, being prominent with increasing SiO2NPs' dose and duration of administration.
Conclusions and Recommendations: SiO2NPs could affect the liver even at small doses. This was augmented with increasing dose and duration of administration. More investigation must be done to fully elucidate the interplay between hepatocytes and other non-parenchymal hepatic cells.