Zinc Oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) has been heavily used in the industry, and increasing concerns on the ecotoxicity has arisen due to the risk of release into the environment. In this work, silkworm was used here as a model organism to study the toxicity of ZnO NPs, due to the presence of a conserved immune response as well as a pharmacokinetics similar to mammals. Zn accumulation, biodistribution and toxicity in silkworms were monitored at different time points after a subcutaneous injection. The highest cumulative content of ZnO NPs was detected in the midgut. The results of catalytic activity studies confirmed that the antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT, GSH-PX) in midgut cells were expressed in response to ZnO NPs. The expression of genes (Dronc and Caspase-1) related to apoptosis was increased, while the Trt gene was down-regulated. A possible mechanism was proposed for toxicity of ZnO NPs to silkworms.

氧化锌纳米颗粒（ZnO NPs）已在工业中大量使用，由于释放到环境中的风险，人们越来越关注生态毒性。在这项工作中，由于存在保守的免疫反应以及类似于哺乳动物的药代动力学，因此在此将家蚕用作模型生物来研究ZnO NP的毒性。皮下注射后的不同时间点，监测家蚕中锌的积累，生物分布和毒性。在中肠中检测到最高的ZnO NP累积含量。催化活性研究的结果证实，中肠细胞中的抗氧化酶（SOD，CAT，GSH-PX）响应于ZnO NPs而表达。与细胞凋亡相关的基因（Dronc和Caspase-1）的表达增加，而Trt基因被下调。