Titanium dioxide nanoparticles induce human eosinophil adhesion onto endothelial EA.hy926 cells via activation of phosphoinositide 3-kinase/Akt cell signalling pathway

The use of nanoparticles (NPs) for developing new therapeutic strategies in a variety of diseases is gaining increasing attention. However, NPs could possess undesired effects, including pro-inflammatory activities. Despite the fact that several studies reported that NPs may induce or exacerbate eosinophilic inflammation in vivo in rodents, the information regarding the direct interaction between NPs and human eosinophils is lacking. In the present study, we test the possibility that NPs could alter the capacity of human eosinophils to adhere onto a cellular substratum. Using a panel of NPs, we found that several were able to increase the adhesion of human eosinophil onto endothelial EA.hy926 cells. Among them, TiO2 NPs were the most potent and we therefore pursue this study with these NPs. TiO2 NPs were found to increase the adhesion of eosinophils in a concentration dependent fashion. TiO2 NPs did not alter the cell surface expression of a panel of cellular adhesion molecules, but CD29. Indeed, a weak to moderate, but significant, decrease of CD29 was observed after 30 min but returned to normal levels after 90 min. TiO2 NPs were found to activate Akt, one important target of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K). However, despite the fact that cells were fully responsive to the cytokine GM-CSF activating both Akt and Erk-1/2, TiO2 NPs did not activate Erk-1/2. Using a pharmacological approach with the PI3K/Akt inhibitor, wortmannin, the ability of TiO2 NPs to activate Akt was drastically inhibited and, further, their capacity to increase adhesion of eosinophils was reversed. This study provides insights into the effects of NPs on the biology of human eosinophils indicating that as other agents, NPs, namely TiO2 NPs, can induce intracellular events associated with a cellular function, adhesion.