Size is an essential parameter in governing the UVB-protective efficacy of silver nanoparticles in human keratinocytes.

BACKGROUND: Ultraviolet (UV) radiation from sun, particularly its UVB component (290-320 nm), is considered the major etiological cause of skin cancer that impacts over 2 million lives in the United States alone. Recently, we reported that polydisperse colloidal suspension of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) protected the human keratinocytes (HaCaT) against UVB-induced damage, thus indicating their potential for prevention of skin carcinogenesis. Here we sought out to investigate if size controlled the chemopreventive efficacy of AgNPs against UVB-induced DNA damage and apoptosis. METHODS: Percent cell viability was examined by WST-1 assay after treating the cells with various doses (1-10 µg/mL) of AgNPs of different sizes (10, 20, 40, 60 and 100 nm) for 12 and 24 h. For protection studies, cells were treated with AgNPs of different sizes at a uniform concentration of 1 µg/mL. After 3 h, cells were irradiated with UVB (40 mJ/cm(2)) and dot-blot analysis was performed to detect cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs) as an indication of DNA damage. Apoptosis was analyzed by flow cytometry after staining the cells with 7-Amino-Actinomycin (7-AAD) and PE Annexin V. Immunoblot analysis was accomplished by processing the cells for protein extraction and Western blotting using specific antibodies against various proteins. RESULTS: The data show that the pretreatment of HaCaT cells with AgNPs in the size range of 10-40 nm were effective in protecting the skin cells from UVB radiation-induced DNA damage as validated by reduced amounts of CPDs, whereas no protection was observed with AgNPs of larger sizes (60 and 100 nm). Similarly, only smaller size AgNPs (10-40 nm) were effective in protecting the skin cells from UV radiation-induced apoptosis. At the molecular level, UVB -irradiation of HaCaT cells led to marked increase in expression of pro-apoptotic protein (Bax) and decrease in anti-apoptotic proteins (Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL), while it remained largely unaffected in skin cells pretreated with smaller size AgNPs (10-40 nm). CONCLUSIONS: Altogether, these findings suggest that size is a critical determinant of the UVB-protective efficacy of AgNPs in human keratinocytes.

Silver nanoparticles protect human keratinocytes against UVB radiation-induced DNA damage and apoptosis: potential for prevention of skin carcinogenesis.

Ultraviolet (UV)-B radiation from the sun is an established etiological cause of skin cancer, which afflicts more than a million lives each year in the United States alone. Here, we tested the chemopreventive efficacy of silver-nanoparticles (AgNPs) against UVB-irradiation-induced DNA damage and apoptosis in human immortalized keratinocytes (HaCaT). AgNPs were synthesized by reduction-chemistry and characterized for their physicochemical properties. AgNPs were well tolerated by HaCaT cells and their pretreatment protected them from UVB-irradiation-induced apoptosis along with significant reduction in cyclobutane-pyrimidine-dimer formation. Moreover, AgNPs pre-treatment led to G1-phase cell-cycle arrest in UVB-irradiated HaCaT cells. AgNPs were efficiently internalized in UVB-irradiated cells and localized into cytoplasmic and nuclear compartments. Furthermore, we observed an altered expression of various genes involved in cell-cycle, apoptosis and nucleotide-excision repair in HaCaT cells treated with AgNPs prior to UVB-irradiation. Together, these findings provide support for potential utility of AgNPs as novel chemopreventive agents against UVB-irradiation-induced skin carcinogenesis. FROM THE CLINICAL EDITOR: Excessive exposure to the sun is known to increase the risk of skin cancer due to DNA damage. In this work, the authors tested the use of silver nanoparticles as protective agents against ultraviolet radiation. The positive results may open a door for the use of silver nanoparticle as novel agents in the future.