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Watson, Christa

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Watson

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Christa

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Watson, Christa
Author's Publications: search.filters.isAuthorOfPublication.d3de292b-7756-4fe0-8991-148d3ca4c5ee

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    Assessing the impact of engineered nanoparticles on wound healing using a novel in vitro bioassay
    (Future Medicine Ltd, 2014) Zhou, Enhua; Watson, Christa; Pizzo, Richard; Cohen, Joel; Dang, Quynh; Ferreira de Barros, Pedro Macul; Park, Chan Young; Chen, Cheng; Brain, Joseph; Butler, James; Ruberti, Jeffrey W; Fredberg, Jeffrey; Demokritou, Philip
    AIM: As engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) increasingly enter consumer products, humans become increasingly exposed. The first line of defense against ENPs is the epithelium, the integrity of which can be compromised by wounds induced by trauma, infection, or surgery, but the implications of ENPs on wound healing are poorly understood. MATERIALS & METHODS: Herein, we developed an in vitro assay to assess the impact of ENPs on the wound healing of cells from human cornea. RESULTS & DISCUSSION: We show that industrially relevant ENPs impeded wound healing and cellular migration in a manner dependent on the composition, dose and size of the ENPs as well as cell type. CuO and ZnO ENPs impeded both viability and wound healing for both fibroblasts and epithelial cells. Carboxylated polystyrene ENPs retarded wound healing of corneal fibroblasts without affecting viability. CONCLUSION: Our results highlight the impact of ENPs on cellular wound healing and provide useful tools for studying the physiological impact of ENPs.
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    Engineering safer-by-design silica-coated ZnO nanorods with reduced DNA damage potential
    (Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), 2014) Sotiriou, Georgios; Watson, Christa; Murdaugh, Kimberly; Darrah, Thomas H.; Pyrgiotakis, Georgios; Elder, Alison; Brain, Joseph; Demokritou, Philip
    Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles absorb UV light efficiently while remaining transparent in the visible light spectrum rendering them attractive in cosmetics and polymer films. Their broad use, however, raises concerns regarding potential environmental health risks and it has been shown that ZnO nanoparticles can induce significant DNA damage and cytotoxicity. Even though research on ZnO nanoparticle synthesis has made great progress, efforts on developing safer ZnO nanoparticles that can maintain their inherent optoelectronic properties while exhibiting minimal toxicity are limited. Here, a safer-by-design concept was pursued by hermetically encapsulating ZnO nanorods in a biologically inert, nanothin amorphous SiO2 coating during their gas-phase synthesis. It is demonstrated that the SiO2 nanothin layer hermetically encapsulates the core ZnO nanorods without altering their optoelectronic properties. Furthermore, the effect of SiO2 on the toxicological profile of the core ZnO nanorods was assessed using the Nano-Cometchip assay by monitoring DNA damage at a cellular level using human lymphoblastoid cells (TK6). Results indicate significantly lower DNA damage (>3 times) for the SiO2-coated ZnO nanorods compared to uncoated ones. Such an industry-relevant, scalable, safer-by-design formulation of nanostructured materials can liberate their employment in nano-enabled products and minimize risks to the environment and human health.