Metal oxide nanoparticles and carbon nanoparticles, as common nanoparticles (NPs), can cause autophagy in certain cells, which will lead to biohealth risk issues. This study determined the difference in autophagy induced by zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) and single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in respiratory epithelial cells. ICP‐OES results showed that NPs uptake as well as the intercellular contents of particles affected cytotoxicity in a dose‐dependent manner. ZnO NPs‐30 nm had a distinct green dot structure representing autophagy, the SWCNTs exposure group had a few green light spots at a concentration of 10 μg/L. The ROS content of the ZnO NP‐30 nm exposure group had the greatest increase at a concentration of 1000 μg/L, which was 2.5 times higher than that of the control, the SWCNTs exposure group showed a 2.2‐fold increase. A slight downregulation of p‐mTOR was detected, and the ZnO NPs‐30 nm treatment group had the significant downregulation rate. The gene and protein expression levels of Beclin‐1 and LC3B were upregulated as the exposure concentration increased. The protein expression of Beclin‐1 and LC3B in the 1000 μg/L ZnO NPs‐30 nm exposure group were 5.21 times and 4.12 times that of the control, respectively. The mRNA expression of Beclin‐1 and LC3B in the 1000 μg/L ZnO NPs‐30 nm exposure group were 5.04 times and 3.61 times that of the control, respectively. At any concentration, the effect of ZnO NPs‐30 nm was greater than that of the SWCNTs. Interaction and crosstalk analysis showed that exposure to ZnO NPs‐30 nm caused autophagy through the aggregation of undegraded autophagosomes, whereas SWCNTs exposure induced diminished intercellular oxidative stress to inhibit autophagy. Therefore, this study demonstrated that the effects of autophagy induced by ZnO NPs‐30 nm and SWCNTs were different. The health risks of ZnO‐30 nm NPs are higher than those of SWCNTs.

中文翻译：

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在大鼠气管上皮细胞中，氧化锌纳米颗粒比单壁碳纳米管能诱导更严重的自噬

金属氧化物纳米粒子和碳纳米粒子作为常见的纳米粒子（NPs），会导致某些细胞发生自噬，从而导致生物健康风险问题。本研究确定了氧化锌纳米颗粒 (ZnO NPs) 和单壁碳纳米管 (SWCNTs) 在呼吸道上皮细胞中诱导的自噬差异。ICP-OES 结果表明，纳米颗粒的摄取以及颗粒的细胞间含量以剂量依赖性方式影响细胞毒性。ZnO NPs-30 nm 具有代表自噬的明显绿点结构，SWCNTs 暴露组有几个浓度为 10 μg/L 的绿光点。ZnO NP-30 nm 暴露组的 ROS 含量在 1000 μg/L 浓度增加最大，是对照组的 2.5 倍，SWCNTs 暴露组增加了 2.2 倍。检测到 p-mTOR 的轻微下调，ZnO NPs-30 nm 处理组的下调率显着。Beclin-1 和 LC3B 的基因和蛋白质表达水平随着暴露浓度的增加而上调。Beclin-1 和 LC3B 在 1000 μg/L ZnO NPs-30 nm 暴露组中的蛋白表达量分别是对照组的 5.21 倍和 4.12 倍。1000 μg/L ZnO NPs-30 nm暴露组Beclin-1和LC3B的mRNA表达量分别是对照组的5.04倍和3.61倍。在任何浓度下，ZnO NPs-30 nm 的影响都大于 SWCNTs 的影响。相互作用和串扰分析表明，暴露于 ZnO NPs-30 nm 通过未降解的自噬体的聚集引起自噬，而 SWCNTs 暴露诱导细胞间氧化应激减少以抑制自噬。因此，本研究表明，ZnO NPs-30 nm 和 SWCNTs 诱导的自噬作用不同。ZnO-30 nm NPs 的健康风险高于 SWCNTs。