TY - JOUR T1 - Short-term biodistribution and clearance of intravenously administered silica nanoparticles JF - Toxicology Reports Y1 - 2018 A1 - Nadia Waegeneers A1 - Anne Brasseur A1 - Van Doren, Elke A1 - Van der Heyden, Sara A1 - Pieter-Jan Serreyn A1 - Pussemier, Luc A1 - Jan Mast A1 - Schneider, Yves-Jacques A1 - Ann Ruttens A1 - S. Roels KW - distribution KW - in vivo KW - intravenous exposure KW - nanomaterials KW - synthetic amorphous silica AB - Recently, concerns have been raised about potential adverse effects of synthetic amorphous silica, commonly used as food additive (E551), since silica nanoparticles have been detected in food containing E551. We examined the biodistribution and excretion in female Sprague-Dawley rats of NM-200, a well characterized nanostructured silica representative for food applications. A single intravenous injection of NM-200 was applied at a dose of 20 mg/kgbw, followed by autopsy after 6 and 24 hours. The main organs where silicon accumulated were liver and spleen. The silicon concentration significantly decreased in spleen between 6 and 24 hours. In liver the tendency was the same but the effect was not significant. This could be due to clearance of the spleen to the liver via the splenic vein, while liver clearance takes more time due to hepatic processing and biliary excretion. In treated animals the liver showed in addition a prominent increase of macrophages between both evaluation moments. Within the first 24 hours, silicon was mainly excreted through urine. Further studies are necessary to evaluate the toxicokinetics of different types of silica nanomaterials at lower exposure doses in order to be able to predict kinetics and toxicity of silica nanoparticles depending on their physicochemical characteristics. VL - 5 M3 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.toxrep.2018.05.004 ER -