The antioxidant effects of silver, gold, and zinc oxide nanoparticles on male mice in in vivo condition

BACKGROUND: We studied the effects of different doses of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), and zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) on oxidative stress markers including glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and catalase (CAT) on male mice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Male albino mice of Wistar strain (N = 60), weighing 17-32 g, were used for this study. The mice were randomly assigned to three classes such that in each class, there were four groups of which one was control and the other three groups were fed with ZnONPs and AgNPs at 500, 250, and 125 ppm concentration and AuNPs at 100, 50, and 25 ppm concentration for 15 days. The heart blood was taken to measure GPX and CAT enzyme activities at the end of the treatment. RESULTS: In male mice treated with AgNPs, the GPX and CAT activities were significantly increased, while significant decreases were seen in the GPX and CAT activities in mice treated with ZnONPs (P < 0.05) and in mice treated with AuNPs (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that AuNPs and ZnONPs caused decreased antioxidant enzyme activities, while nanosilver had the reverse effect and increased the antioxidant enzyme activities and caused decreased stress oxidative.