Chapter 4 – Nanocytotoxicity

The ability to assess cellular cytotoxicity is a critically important element to the development and use of nanoparticles. This is especially true as cell viability assays represent the beginning of the preclinical pipeline. A number of dependable approaches exist to investigate possible toxic effects resulting from iron oxide nanoparticles and leveraging mechanisms including membrane integrity, metabolic function, redox, and inflammation. These methods use dyes and other agents to produce easily quantifiable readouts employing light microcopy, fluorescence, colorimetric, and other techniques. The broad range of approaches available allow for any nanoparticle to be quickly characterized for toxicity in the cell type of choice. In this section, we discuss the various established methods for characterizing nanocytotoxicity.