Chapter 6

Molecular Methods for Nanotoxicology

Lisa Bregoli, Stefano Pozzi-Mucelli and Laura Manodori

Abstract

This chapter presents the most frequently used methods to study the effect of nanomaterials and nanoparticles on biological systems. The aim of the chapter is not to give a detailed technical description of the protocols, but to present the available techniques that have been adopted for the analysis of potential toxic effect of nanomaterials, and engineered nanoparticles in particular. As nanotoxicology is an extremely new branch of bio-toxicological sciences, the definition of its methods is still in the process of development. In this chapter we describe the main challenges of this process, where the adaptation of classical cytotoxicity and molecular methods has to take into account the unique properties of nanomaterials.

Total Pages: 97-120 (24)

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