Silicon dioxide (silica, SiO2, SAS) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) are produced in high volumes and applied in many consumer and food products. As a consequence, there is a potential human exposure and subsequent systemic uptake of these particles. In this study we show the characterization and quantification of both total silicon (Si) and titanium (Ti), and particulate SiO2 and TiO2 in postmortem tissue samples from 15 deceased persons. Included tissues are liver, spleen, kidney and the intestinal tissues jejunum and ileum. Low-level analysis was enabled by the use of fully validated sample digestion methods combined with (single particle) inductively coupled plasma high resolution mass spectrometry techniques (spICP-HRMS). The results show a total-Si concentration ranging from <2 to 191 mg Si/kg (median values of 5.8 (liver), 9.5 (spleen), 7.7 (kidney), 6.8 (jejunum), 7.6 (ileum) mg Si/kg) while the particulate SiO2 ranged from <0.2 to 25 mg Si/kg (median values of 0.4 (liver), 1.0 (spleen), 0.4 (kidney), 0.7 (jejunum, 0.6 (ileum) mg Si/kg), explaining about 10% of the total-Si concentration. Particle sizes ranged from 150 to 850 nm with a mode of 270 nm. For total-Ti the results show concentrations ranging from <0.01 to 2.0 mg Ti/kg (median values of 0.02 (liver), 0.04 (spleen), 0.05 (kidney), 0.13 (jejunum), 0.26 (ileum) mg Ti/kg) while particulate TiO2 concentrations ranged from 0.01 to 1.8 mg Ti/kg (median values of 0.02 (liver), 0.02 (spleen), 0.03 (kidney), 0.08 (jejunum), 0.25 (ileum) mg Ti/kg). In general, the particulate TiO2 explained 80% of the total-Ti concentration. This indicates that most Ti in these organ tissues is particulate material. The detected particles comprise primary particles, aggregates and agglomerates, and were in the range of 50-500 nm with a mode in the range of 100-160 nm. About 17% of the detected TiO2 particles had a size <100 nm. The presence of SiO2 and TiO2 particles in liver tissue was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry.

中文翻译：

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在人体组织中发现的二氧化硅和二氧化钛颗粒。

大量生产二氧化硅（二氧化硅，SiO2，SAS）和二氧化钛（TiO2），并应用于许多消费品和食品中。结果，潜在的人类暴露和随后的全身吸收这些颗粒。在这项研究中，我们显示了15名死者死后组织样本中总硅（Si）和钛（Ti）以及颗粒SiO2和TiO2的表征和定量。包括的组织是肝，脾，肾以及空肠和回肠的肠组织。通过使用经过充分验证的样品消解方法与（单颗粒）电感耦合等离子体高分辨率质谱技术（spICP-HRMS）相结合，可以进行低水平分析。结果显示，总Si浓度范围为<2至191 mg Si / kg（中位数为5.8（肝脏），9.5（脾脏），7）。所检测的颗粒包括初级颗粒，聚集体和附聚物，并且在50-500nm的范围内，且模式在100-160nm的范围内。大约17％的检测到的TiO2颗粒尺寸小于100 nm。通过扫描电子显微镜和能量色散X射线光谱法证实了肝组织中SiO 2和TiO 2颗粒的存在。