Particle deposition and resorption in the respiratory tract
Most research about biodistribution of nanoparticles in organisms focuses on intravenous injection. However, nanoparticles were shown to be able to pass the blood air barrier of the lung. Whether or not nanoparticles can travel through the lung into the body seems to be size dependent. This was evaluated by injecting neutron activated radioactive gold nanoparticles of 1.4 nm and 18 nm intratracheally to rats.The bigger nanoparticles almost completely retained in the lung while significant amounts of the smaller 1.4 nm particles were found in blood, liver, skin and carcass 24 h after instillation [44]. Choi H. S. et al. applied nanoparticles of different size and charge to mice. The nanoparticles were tracked in different organs through fluorescence labeling. It was demonstrated that nanoparticles rapidly translocated to the mediastinal lymph nodes if they possess a hydrodynamic diameter of 34 nm or less and a neutral or anionic surface. Bigger and positively charged nanoparticles exhibited nosignificant uptake [45] (Fig. 6). In addition to physical parameters of the applied nanoparticles the health status of the exposed organism also seems to play an important role. A recent study showed that the distribution of oropharyngeal instilled 40 nm gold nanoparticles is influenced by additional LPS treatment. The gold content of organs was measured with inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy. BALB/C mice that had been oropharyngeal treated with LPS 24 h prior to the nanoparticle administration exhibited less gold content in their lungs than untreated mice. In both groups gold was detected in different organs. High concentrations were found in heart and thymus in the non LPS group, while the LPS treated mice accumulated most of the gold in the spleen. The author concluded that nanoparticle uptake may depend on medical preconditions [46].