The toxicity of titanium dioxide nanopowder to early life stages of the Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes)

In this study, fertilized Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) embryos were exposed from fertilization to 5 d post-hatch using static non-renewal assays to aqueous suspensions of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (nTiO2) ranging in nominal concentrations between 0 and 14 μg mL−1. The average size of the nTiO2 in the stock solution before addition to the test treatments was 87 nm (±14 nm). TiO2 materials accumulated in a concentration dependent manner on the chorionic filaments of developing medaka embryos with evidence of pericardial edema occurring during embryo development. However, no significant (p > 0.05) increases in mortality relative to control treatments were observed for the nTiO2 exposed embryos. A concentration dependent increase in cumulative percent hatch was observed at 11 d, indicating that exposure to increasing concentrations of nTiO2 resulted in the premature hatch of medaka embryos. Post-hatch, a significant proportion of sac fry from the nTiO2 exposure groups exhibited moribund swimming behavior and these individuals also experienced greater mortality at 15 d post-hatch. Combined, these results demonstrate that exposure to nTiO2 can impact the development of early life stages of fish.