EVALUATION OF ANTIOXIDANT ENZYME RESPONSES IN EARTHWORMS EXPOSED TO POLYSTYRENE NANO PARTICLES AND PAMAM DENDRIMERSB. SIVA PRASAD, P. SANKAR GANESH, K. LAGAN, T. VISHAKA, S.S. VUTUKURU AND S.K. SARKARAbstract Rapid yet cost-effective toxicity testing methods to evaluate the toxic potential of engineered nanoparticles are of high priority in the era of emerging contaminants. In this pursuit, efforts are underway to explore the applicability of existing toxicity testing methods that are used for conventional chemicals. The present work focuses on toxicological evaluation of two polymeric nanoparticles i.e., polystyrene (PS) and polyamidoamine dendrimers in earthworm Eisenia fetida through the dermal contact method of OECD-207. Dynamic light scattering technique was used to determine size and charge of polymeric nanoparticles. Polystyrene had the size of 111± 11.5 nm and charge of-64.9 ± 5.8 mV. Size and charge of polyamidoamine dendrimers were 386 ± 15 nm &-27.5 ± 3.2 mV respectively. Though exposure of earthworm to these anionic polymeric nanoparticles showed no mortality, at sub-lethal concentrations, perturbations in antioxidant enzymes such as glutathione reductase and superoxide dismutase were observed. Thus outcomes of the study will help in screening the toxicity of polymeric nanoparticles in earthworm using dermal contact.
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