Objectives: This work was conducted to investigate the acute and chronic effects of gold nanoparticles on animal observation, bodyweight and different organ weight in male rats.
Methods: Experiment I: 45 adult male rats were randomly assigned into three equal groups (18 per group). Group 1 (control group): Rats were received intramuscular (i.m) injection of 1 ml normal saline 0.9%. Group ІІ (50nm GNSs) and Group ІІІ (10nm GNSs): Rats were i.m injected with a single dose of 75μg GNSs/kg/bwt. Experiment II: 18 adult male rats were randomly divided into three equal groups (6 per group). Group І: Rats were i.m injected with 1 ml normal saline 0.9% for 5 weeks. Group ІІ (50nm GNSs) and Group ІІІ (10nm GNSs): Rats were i.m. injected with repeated doses of 75μg GNSs/kg/bwt for 5 weeks once/week followed by 3 weeks washout period. Rats were observed daily for behavioral changes, weighed weekly and scarified by head dislocation at days 3, 7 and 60 days of 1st experiment and at day 60 of 2nd experiment for organ weight measurements.
Results: Acute and chronic administration of GNPs (10 or 50nm size) in male rats caused no significant variations on animal observation, body weight gain and various organ weights between the gold nanoparticle-treated rats and control rats and also caused no any symptoms of toxicity as well as had no mortalities.
Conclusion: Acute and chronic administration of AuNSs (10 and 50nm size) are safe, induced no significance difference on daily animal observation, body and different organ weights.