Similar pulmonary toxicity and gene expression changes after short-term inhalation exposure to surface-modified copper oxide nanoparticles

This study investigated the pulmonary toxicity of Copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) surface modified with polyethylenimine (PEI) or ascorbate (ASC), was investigated. Rats were exposed nose-only to a fixed exposure concentration of ASC or PEI coated CuO NPs for 5 consecutive days. On day 6 and day 27 post-exposure, pulmonary toxicity markers in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were analyzed and histopathological evaluation of the lungs was performed, along with microarray analyses on whole lung tissue samples.