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Article (refereed) - postprint
Diez-Ortiz, Maria; Lahive, Elma; Kille, Peter; Powell, Kate; Morgan, A. John;
Jurkschat, Kerstin; Van Gestel, Cornelis A.M.; Mosselmans, J. Fred W.;
Svendsen, Claus; Spurgeon, David J. 2015. Uptake routes and
toxicokinetics of silver nanoparticles and silver ions in the earthworm
Lumbricus rubellus. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 34 (10).
2263-2270. 10.1002/etc.3036
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This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Environmental Toxicology Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
DOI 10.1002/etc.3036
UPTAKE ROUTES AND TOXICOKINETICS OF SILVER NANOPARTICLES AND
SILVER IONS IN THE EARTHWORM LUMBRICUS RUBELLUS
Running title: Silver uptake in earthworms occurs mainly via oral exposure
MARIA DIEZ-ORTIZ,*† ELMA LAHIVE,† PETER KILLE,‡ KATE POWELL,‡ A. JOHN MORGAN,‡ KERSTIN
JURKSCHAT,§ CORNELIS A.M. VAN GESTEL,|| J. FRED W. MOSSELMANS,# CLAUS SVENDSEN,† and
DAVID J. SPURGEON†
†
Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, United
Kingdom
‡
Cardiff School of Biosciences, University of Cardiff, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
§Department of Materials, Oxford University, Yarnton, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
||
Department of Ecological Science, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, VU University,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
#Diamond Light Source, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, Oxfordshire, United
Kingdom
* Address correspondence to mdiez@leitat.org
This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Submitted 16 June 2014; Returned for Revision 14 August 2014; Accepted 24 April 2015
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This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Abstract: Current bioavailability models, such as the free ion activity model and biotic ligand model,
explicitly consider that metal exposure will be mainly to the dissolved metal in ionic form. With the rise
of nanotechnology products and the increasing release of metal-based nanoparticles (NPs) to the
environment, such models may increasingly be applied to support risk assessment. However, it is not
immediately clear whether the assumption of metal ion exposure will be relevant for NPs. Here using
an established approach of oral gluing we have conducted a toxicokinetics study to investigate the
routes of Ag NP and Ag
+
ion uptake in the soil dwelling earthworm Lumbricus rubellus. Results
indicated a significant part of the Ag uptake in the earthworms is through oral/gut uptake for both Ag
+
ions and NPs. Thus, sealing the mouth reduced Ag uptake by between 40-75%. An X-ray analysis of
the internal distribution of Ag in transverse sections confirmed the presence of increased Ag
concentrations in exposed earthworm tissues. For the Ag NPs but not the Ag
+
ions, high concentrations
were associated with the gut wall, liver-like chloragogenous tissue and nephridia, which suggest a
pathway for Ag NP uptake, detoxification and excretion via these organs. Overall our results indicate
that Ag in ionic and NP form is assimilated and internally distributed in earthworms and that this uptake
occurs predominantly via the gut epithelium and less so via the body wall. The importance of oral
exposure questions the application of current metal bioavailability models, which implicitly consider
that the dominant route of exposure is via the soil solution, for bioavailability assessment and modelling
of metal-based NPs. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Keywords: Silver, Nanoparticles, Exposure route, Uptake, XANES
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INTRODUCTION
The rapid increase of nanotechnology can be expected to result in increased rates at which
engineered nanoparticles (NPs) are entering the environment. The nature of some common
nanotechnology products, including cosmetics, textiles and personal care products, means that NPs can
be expected to enter wastewater streams, where within sewage systems they may sediment into the
sludge material. The deposition of this waste to land provides a route by which these released NPs may
enter into soil ecosystems [1-3]. Once in the environment, there is the potential for metal-based NPs or
metal ions, that are derived following their solubilisation, to come into contact with organisms and
hence to be accumulated [4-7].
The prevailing ecotoxicology paradigm states that for effects to occur it is necessary for the
material to be taken up into the body, and ultimately reach a target site. For conventional chemicals, the
concepts of toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics are well established as a coherent framework that links
exposure to toxic effects [8]. There is reason to expect that this paradigm will be relevant for NPs,
although some debate remains concerning the extent to which toxicity may be dependent on the
biological interactions resulting once NPs enter tissues and cells. Hence to understand the effects of
NPs it is important to understand key aspects governing uptake into exposed organisms under realistic
conditions.
For organisms that live in soils, NP exposure can be expected to occur through three main
routes. Exposure through air is relevant only for more volatile chemicals and hence for NPs under
normal soil moisture conditions is unlikely to be important. For the remaining two routes, namely
exposure through contact with and transfer across the skin (dermal) and ingestion and transfer across
the gut epithelium (oral), previous studies with conventional chemicals have generally suggested
dermal exposure as the dominant route. This includes pesticides and non-polar organic chemicals in
studies with woodlice and earthworms [9] and for Cd and Zn metal ions in a classic study by Vijver et
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This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
al. [10] that used surgical glue to inhibit soil ingestion. The latter approach allowed for separate
analysis of dermal uptake with and without the additional inputs derived from ingestion and is adopted
here.
Indications of dermal contact as the dominant route of exposure have underpinned the
development of models, such as the free ion activity model (FIAM) [1] and later the biotic ligand model
(BLM) [12] and related terrestrial bioavailability methods, that link soil solution chemistry and metal
speciation modelling, to passive absorption and surface ligand binding on biological membranes,
notably epidermis and gill and thereafter ultimately to toxic effects [11-14]. The successful application
of these models to explain the effects of variations in media properties on metal toxicity [15-17] has
pointed to the validity of the assumptions inherent in these models, with exposure mainly through
external body surfaces. However, although many studies have used the FIAM and BLM to explain
metal bioavailability and toxicity, not all research has necessarily supported this conjecture regarding
exposure routes. For example, the results of Cain et al. [18] suggested that free ion concentrations
accounted for less than 5% of Cd and Cu accumulation in mayflies in aqueous exposure. While the
identification of a dependence of uptake on gut physiology and microbiome composition [19,20] also
indicates dietary uptake as an important exposure route [21].
Previous studies of soil invertebrate exposure to metal-based NPs have established that these
materials can enter into the tissues either as intact particles or following dissociation to ions [6,22,23].
In cases where the uptake of intact NPs is suggested it is, however, currently unclear how these
materials enter tissues. This uncertainty currently places limits on the development of a modelling
framework that can link NP exposure to uptake and effects, such as for example whether assumption of
dermal uptake are valid. To specifically assess the importance of different potential exposure routes of
NP uptake, we conducted a study to assess the toxicokinetic patterns of Ag uptake in earthworms
exposed to both ionic and NP forms of Ag in soil, using the same oral sealing approaches as used by
Vijver et al [10] to quantify the comparative contributions of both the dermal and oral exposure route.
