Silica nanoparticles (SiO₂ NPs) are commonly used in medical and pharmaceutical fields. Research into the cytotoxicity and overall proteomic changes occurring during initial exposure to SiO₂ NPs is limited. We investigated the mechanism of toxicity in human liver cells according to exposure time [0, 4, 10, and 16 h (h)] to SiO₂ NPs through proteomic analysis using mass spectrometry. SiO₂ NP-induced cytotoxicity through various pathways in HepG2 cells. Interestingly, when cells were exposed to SiO₂ NPs for 4 h, the morphology of the cells remained intact, while the expression of proteins involved in mRNA splicing, cell cycle, and mitochondrial function was significantly downregulated. These results show that the toxicity of the nanoparticles affects protein expression even if there is no change in cell morphology at the beginning of exposure to SiO₂ NPs. The levels of reactive oxygen species changed significantly after 10 h of exposure to SiO₂ NPs, and the expression of proteins associated with oxidative phosphorylation, as well as the immune system, was upregulated. Eventually, these changes in protein expression induced HepG2 cell death. This study provides insights into cytotoxicity evaluation at early stages of exposure to SiO₂ NPs through in vitro experiments.

The need for basement membrane extract (BME) with undefined constituents, such as Matrigel, for intestinal stem cell (ISC) culture in traditional systems poses a significant barrier that must be overcome for the development of clinical-grade, scalable, ready-to-use ISCs. Here, we propose a functional polymer-based xenogeneic-free dish for the culture of intestinal stem cells (XF-DISC), ensuring substantially prolonged maintenance of ISCs derived from 3-dimensional human intestinal organoids (ISCs^3D-hIO). XF-DISC enables remarkable expandability, exhibiting a 24-fold increase in cell numbers within 30 days, with long-term maintenance of ISCs^3D-hIO for more than 30 consecutive passages (>210 days). In addition, XF-DISC is fully compatible with a cell banking system. Notably, human pluripotent stem cell-derived ISCs^3D-hIO cultured on XF-DISC are successfully transplanted into intestinal injury and inflammation mouse models, leading to engraftment and regeneration of damaged mouse intestinal epithelium. As a reliable and scalable xenogeneic-free ISC^3D-hIO culture method, XF-DISC is highly promising for the development of regenerative ISC therapy for human intestinal diseases.

Reliable characterization of protein coronas (PCs) that form when nanomaterials are introduced into biological fluids is a critical step in the development of safe and efficient nanomedicine. We observed that bovine serum albumin (BSA)-coated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) do not induce cytotoxicity, but have different cellular uptake rates depending on the BSA pretreatment concentration. To determine how these slight differences affect A549 cell responses and intracellular changes, we conducted spectroscopic (circular dichroism and Fourier-transform infrared) and spectrometric (nanoflow liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–tandem mass spectrometry) analyses. The various characterization techniques conducted in this study reveal the following. (i) The composition ratio of PCs on MWCNTs differs depending on the BSA concentration. (ii) Analysis of the secondary structure of the proteins revealed that the α-helix structure increased with increasing BSA concentration. (iii) Proteomic analysis showed that different biological pathways were activated at levels higher and lower than 5 mg mL⁻¹. Such combined spectroscopic and spectrometric approaches provide an integrated understanding of PC composition as well as how nano/bio-interface states are linked to cellular-level responses. Our results can support reliable and practical applications of nanomedicine development.

In the study of degenerative brain diseases, changes in lipids, the main component of neurons, are particularly important because they are used as indicators of pathological changes. One method for the sensitive measurement of biomolecules, especially lipids, is time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) using pulsed argon cluster ions. In this study, biomolecules including various lipids present in normal mouse brain tissue were measured using ToF-SIMS equipped with pulsed argon cluster primary ions. Based on the ToF-SIMS measurement results, hybrid SIMS (OrbiSIMS), which is a ToF-SIMS system with the addition of an orbitrap mass analyzer, was used to directly identify the biomolecules by the region in the real tissue samples. For this, the results of ToF-SIMS, which measured the tissue samples from a single mouse brain within static limits, were compared with those from OrbiSIMS measured beyond the static limits in terms of the differences in molecular profiling. From this analysis, two types of positive and negative ions were selected for identification, with the OrbiSIMS MS/MS results indicating that the positive ions were glycerophosphocholine and the negative ions were glycerophosphoinositol and sulfatide, a sphingolipid. Then, to confirm the identification of the molecular candidates, lipids were extracted from mirror image tissue samples, and LC-MS/MS also using an orbitrap mass analyzer was performed. As a result, the direct identification of molecular candidate groups distributed in particular regions of the tissue samples via OrbiSIMS was found to be consistent with the identification results by LC-MS/MS for extracted samples.