Particle number-based trophic transfer of gold nanomaterials in an aquatic food chain

Characteristics of the NMs

Commercially available spherical (10, 60, and 100 nm) and rod-shaped (10 × 45 nm and 50 × 100 nm) citrate-coated Au-NMs from Nanopartz (USA) were characterized in Milli-Q (MQ) water in terms of particle size and morphology using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) (Supplementary Fig. 1). The physicochemical properties of the Au-NMs in MQ water are summarized in Supplementary Table 1. A negative zeta potential (a measure of colloidal dispersion electrostatic stability) was observed for all Au-NMs and ranged from −21 to −25 mV in MQ water and from −17 to −19 mV in the algal exposure medium (without algae). The stability of the particles against dissolution and agglomeration in the algal exposure medium without algae was monitored throughout the exposure duration (72 h). The dissolved fraction of the Au-NMs was <0.2% of the total Au mass for all particles (Supplementary Fig. 2a), which confirms the persistence of the NMs over the exposure duration of 72 h in the algal exposure medium. There were no significant changes in the measured mode of the size distribution and particle number of the Au-NMs in the algal exposure medium over 72 h of incubation (Supplementary Fig. 2b–f). This indicates that the particles are stable against agglomeration, which is likely due to the negative zeta potential increasing repulsion between the particles, thus preventing agglomeration.

Association of Au-NMs with algal cells

As primary producers, algae act as a gateway for the transfer of contaminants into aquatic food chains²⁶. To understand how algae transfer NMs into aquatic food webs, Pseudokirchinella subcapitata was exposed to Au-NMs of different sizes and shapes. The initial concentration of the Au-NMs, to which the algae were exposed, was similar (2.9 × 10¹¹ particles mL⁻¹) for all Au-NM shapes and sizes (Supplementary Table 2). No toxicity due to the exposure to Au-NMs was observed in the algae, as tested by measuring the chlorophyll content relative to unexposed controls (Supplementary Fig. 3), consistent with a previous publication²⁷. After exposure, the unbound particles and the particles loosely attached to the algae were removed using a washing step with phosphate buffer saline (PBS, 0.1 M pH 7.5) followed by centrifugation (Supplementary Fig. 4) using Thermo Scientific Sorvall ST 16R Centrifuge. No dissolution of the Au-NMs was observed in PBS (from spICP-MS measurements that measure particles and ions) in agreement with our previous results²⁷. We quantified the total mass of Au-NMs associated with the algal cells (the algae pellet) based on a cell-by-cell measurement using scICP-MS²⁸.

The data showed that the spherical 10 nm Au-NMs were found in 68% of the cells in the algal population, ranging from 20 to 1200 ag Au per cell, whereas the rod-shaped 10 × 45 nm Au-NMs occurred in just 34% of the cells ranging from 30 to 200 ag Au per cell (Fig. 1a). As the first consumers (i.e., daphnids) feed on total algae, it is not necessary to differentiate between the NMs internalized in algal cells and those associated with the cells. The data showed that not all the cells within a given population accumulate Au-NMs, and that the Au-NMs were randomly distributed between the cells²⁰. The surface of algae is covered by biopolymeric material (Fig. 1b) such as proteins, DNA, and polysaccharides, etc., known as extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). When algal cells are exposed to a stressor, the excretion of EPS by the cells increases (Fig. 1c) to protect the cells against the stressor²⁹. It is likely that these substances determine the extent to which NMs associate with algae²⁰. Smaller NMs may penetrate the EPS, while NMs with larger particle sizes/elongated shapes cannot penetrate this layer (Fig. 1d). The latter was then removed from the surface of the cells during the washing process.

Trophic transfer of the Au-NMs

Before describing the behaviour of the Au-NMs at each trophic level, we provide an overview of the percentage of the Au-NMs transferred to each trophic level. Trophic transfer of Au-NMs on a mass basis has been reported previously in different food chains^30,31. Herein, we document the trophic transfer of Au-NMs as a function of particle physicochemical properties in an assembled aquatic food chain. The percentages were obtained from the calculated mass balance for the total mass of Au at different trophic levels (Supplementary Table 4) determined by ICP-MS. Accordingly, the total mass concentration of the Au-NMs at each trophic level was normalized to the total mass concentration of the Au-NMs at the previous trophic level. After exposure, the algae removed between 31% (rod-shaped 50 × 100 nm Au-NMs) and 90% (rod-shaped 10 × 45 nm Au-NMs) of the Au-NMs from the exposure media as a function of NM size and shape (Table 1). Nevertheless, only a small percentage of the Au-NMs were strongly associated with the algae, ranging from 0.01% for spherical 100 nm to 0.21% for the spherical 10 nm Au-NMs (Table 1). A considerable percentage (ranging from 31% to 89%) of the Au-NMs associated with algae were removed from the cells after the washing process using PBS, indicating that NMs are mostly loosely attached or unbound to algal cells.

The total mass of the accumulated Au in daphnids fed with Au-NM-exposed algae (0.1 mg w.w. algae per daphnia) was between 0.73% (for spherical 60 nm Au-NMs) and 1.71% (for rod-shaped 10 × 45 nm Au-NMs) of the total Au in algae. The total mass of Au depurated from the daphnids was between 78% (spherical 60 nm Au-NMs) and 92% (rod-shaped 10 × 45) of the total mass of Au in 0.1 mg algae (Table 1), as shown by the depuration experiments in which the daphnids were treated with NMs-exposed algae for 72 h followed by 72 h of depuration. Although we could not clearly distinguish between the ionic and particulate form of the Au in the depuration medium, we could prove that Au, whether in the form of ions or particles, was excreted by the daphnids. It was previously documented that Au-NMs are depurated from daphnids, but no clear trend with the size or stabilizing agent could be found to explain the observed depuration rates³². This uptake and depuration data show that daphnids do not accumulate all NMs to which they are exposed to.

The fish (zebrafish) were fed with 10 daphnids (~100 mg of daphnids) each per day for 21 days. The results showed that a small percentage of the Au-NMs accumulated in daphnids transferred to fish (ranging from 0.03% for spherical 10 nm to 0.48% for rod-shaped 50 × 100) (Table 1). The total mass concentration of Au in the fish medium was measured on day 23 (48 h after the final feeding, whilst the medium had not been refreshed for 4 days). The results confirmed that a considerable fraction of the Au was excreted from the fish into the medium (ranging from 49% to 58% of the exposure dose) (Table 1).

Transformation and agglomeration of Au-NMs in organisms

Metallic NMs may dissolve within the organisms despite their stability in the exposure media^{12,33,34,35,36}. For example, Briffa et al.¹² showed that the dissolution of cerium dioxides (CeO₂)-NMs in the exposure medium of daphnids is negligible, whereas, at simulated gut conditions of daphnids, there is around 40% Ce dissolution from the particles. Nevertheless, in situ investigations on the biotransformation of NMs in organisms are challenging. Techniques such as synchrotron-based X-ray microanalysis allow in situ analysis to provide information about the presence of metallic NMs within tissues and offer information about the dissolution and speciation of the NMs and the released ions^34,37. However, the typical resolution of synchrotron-based X-ray microanalysis (ca. 2–12 μm) currently is not sufficient to detect single NMs, particularly in organisms/tissue where the concentration of the NMs is expected to be low³⁸. To overcome these limitations, the workflow developed in this study was tailored to the measurement of NMs and released ions at trace levels in situ in the tissue.

No detectable Au ion release was seen in the algae as measured by spICP-MS. Nonetheless, the NMs partially dissolved within the daphnids that had been fed with Au-NM treated algae. The percentages of intact particles and Au ions released from the Au-NMs in the daphnids are presented in Fig. 2a. The dissolution in the daphnids gut was NM size- and shape-dependent. The highest Au ion release in daphnids was detected for rod-shaped 50 × 100 nm Au-NMs, followed by spherical 100 nm NMs, which resulted in releases of 56% and 39% of the NM mass, respectively. The dissolution of the Au-NMs in the daphnids could have occurred in the gut, which has a lower pH (∼4) than the exposure medium^12,39. Absorption of a biomolecule corona to the surface of NMs when they enter the daphnids can also accelerate the dissolution of the particles if there is a strongly Au-binding protein present or can slow dissolution by promoting sulfidation processes⁴⁰. The dissolution profiles in daphnids violated the common belief that smaller metallic NMs release more ions⁴¹, despite the fact that the dissolution rate of smaller particles is anticipated to be more extensive than that of larger particles⁴² due to a higher volume-specific surface area for ion release²⁰. Apparently, Au-NMs do not follow this principle when they are accumulated in organisms. Possibly, the smaller Au-NMs agglomerate faster than the larger particles in the daphnids, with agglomeration reducing the particle dissolution due to decreasing the effective surface area of the particles, as reported previously for metallic NMs^43,44. It is also possible that re-precipitation following dissolution occurred, whereby the smaller Au-NMs might dissolve faster than the larger ones, leading to higher local concentrations of Au ions and earlier onset of re-precipitation of Au ions onto particles. This biotransformation of metallic NMs in organisms is of paramount importance for understanding the toxicity of NMs as it determines the behaviour and biological fate of the NMs and the release of ions from the particles and, subsequently, the target organs reached by the different metal forms¹⁴.

To test this hypothesis, we comprehensively quantified the number-based size distribution of the accumulated particles at each trophic level (Supplementary Fig. 5a, b) after extraction from the organisms using a method that had been shown previously not to alter the NMs size distribution (see “Methods” section). The shift in mode (M_size) of the size distribution between two subsequent trophic levels shows how the size distribution of Au-NMs is affected across the food chain (Table 2 and Supplementary Fig. 5a, b). The M_size of the spherical 10 nm and the rod-shaped 10 × 45 nm Au-NMs in daphnids shifted towards a larger particle size (from 20 to 32 nm and from 25 to 28 nm, respectively). The M_size of spherical 60 nm, spherical 100 nm and rod-shaped 50 × 100 nm Au-NMs in daphnids shifted towards smaller particle size compared to Au-NMs in algae, confirming our findings that daphnids modify the size distribution of these Au-NMs by dissolution (Fig. 2a). The M_size of the transformed spherical 10 nm and the rod-shaped 10 × 45 nm NMs in daphnids was almost equal to the M_size of the 60 nm and 100 nm spherical Au-NMs and rod-shaped 50 × 100 nm Au-NMs (Table 2), ranging from ~25 to 40 nm mass-based size, suggesting that in fact, the hypothesis related to faster dissolution and re-precipitation of the smaller particles is the most likely explanation for the transformation process. Thus, irrespective of the initial size, all Au-NMs were transformed into roughly equivalent sizes in the daphnids. By modifying the size of the particles, daphnids can dramatically influence the biological fate of NMs in the higher trophic levels and how metallic NMs distribute over the entire aquatic food chain.

No Au ions were detected in fish tissues, indicating that (a) the Au-NMs in fish did not dissolve, and (b) the ions released from the particles in the daphnids were not detectable in fish. Two explanations can be put forward for these findings. First, the Au ions in daphnids may not be bioavailable to fish and consequently, they were not taken up by fish. Many studies have already shown that the distribution of soluble metals in organisms influences their trophic transfer by controlling their bioavailability for predators^45,46. For example, soluble metals distributed in subcellular organelles are more efficiently taken up by predators than are metals present in insoluble fractions within prey, such as in metal-rich granules⁴⁵. It is likely that the ionic form of the Au in daphnids was stored in fractions that make them non-bioavailable to fish. Second, the absence of Au ions released from the particles in fish could be due to the evolution of the biomolecule corona on the surface of the particles when entering the fish body^47,48,49. The corona may reduce the Au release from Au-NMs in fish unlike in daphnids, as observed for other NMs in other organisms^50,51,52. We tested this hypothesis by incubating 10 mg L⁻¹ of the Au-NMs in a 1 mL fish plasma (10 times diluted with PBS; containing 4.5 g L⁻¹ proteins) for 24 h (Fig. 2b and Supplementary Section 8). After incubation, the samples were digested using Tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) to remove the biomolecules and free the Au ions potentially sorbed to these molecules (for detailed information about the method see Supplementary Section 8). The residuals were measured using spICP-MS to differentiate between Au ions and Au-NMs. The results (Fig. 2c) showed that the biomolecule corona of fish plasma indeed reduced the dissolution of all the Au-NMs, regardless of particle size and shape, when compared to the dissolution of the NMs in ultrapure water.

Although there was a slight increase in the M_size of the Au-NMs, the size distribution of the Au-NMs in the intestine of fish remained almost the same as that in daphnids. The increase in the M_size of spherical 10 nm (increased from 32 to 42 nm) and rod-shaped 10 × 45 nm (increased from 26 nm to 47 nm) Au-NMs was more pronounced than the increase in the other Au-NMs. These results suggest that the spherical 60 nm, the spherical 100 nm and the rod-shaped 50 × 100 nm Au-NMs did not dissolve further or agglomerate in the fish gut. It is not surprising that the spherical 10 nm and rod-shaped 10 × 45 nm continue agglomerating even when their larger counterparts are stable against agglomeration, because they have a significantly larger volume-specific surface area compared to the larger counterparts²⁰, which enhances particles agglomeration. This finding indicates that Au-NMs may not undergo biotransformation in fish, suggesting that the transformation of metallic NMs in organisms is a species-dependent phenomenon. This even questions the application of model organisms to assess the risk of NMs as each organism may have different influences on the biotransformation of NMs and the findings cannot be extrapolated to other organisms.

The results furthermore indicated that Au-NMs were selectively distributed across the fish tissues because a different size distribution of Au-NMs was measured in various tissues (Table 2 and Fig. S5a, b, Supplementary Information). Particles with M_size between 50 and 61 nm accumulated in the brain regardless of their size in the daphnids and fish intestine. Because fish were exposed to Au-NMs only through food, we did not expect to measure detectable numbers of Au-NMs in the gills. Nevertheless, particles with M_size between 39 nm (spherical 100 nm Au-NMs) and 86 nm (spherical 60 nm Au-NMs) were detected in the gills. There are two possible explanations for this: first, the particles may be transferred via the blood to be excreted from the body through the gills⁵³ and the smaller size of the particles allowed them to penetrate the gills. Second, the particles may be excreted from the fish gut into the culture medium and be subsequently taken up by fish through the gills. The high percentage of excreted Au from fish (Table 1) suggests that most of the accumulated Au-NMs in the gills are likely taken up from the medium rather than translocated following ingestion.

Number of accumulated Au-NMs at each trophic level

To provide insight into the number-based trophic transfer of Au-NMs, we measured the number of Au-NMs at each trophic level (Algae–Daphnia–Fish) using spICP-MS. A schematic representation of the Au-NMs trophic transfer as a function of NM physicochemical properties is illustrated in Fig. 3a. Our results (Fig. 3b) showed lower numbers of Au-NMs in daphnids (ranging from 3 × 10⁴ for rod-shaped 50 × 100 nm NMs to 6 × 10⁵ for spherical 10 nm NMs) compared to algae and lower again in the fish (ranging from 1.5 × 10⁴ for rod-shaped 50 × 100 nm Au-NMs to 2.5 × 10⁴ for rod-shaped 10 × 45 nm Au-NMs) than in daphnids. Previous studies have shown that biofilms and algae could constitute a potential entry route for NMs into aquatic food chains^3,54. Herein we show that not all particles attached to algae were transferred to higher trophic levels. However, unlike the algae, all the daphnids and fish measured contained NMs.

In this study, we demonstrate that although the algae were exposed to the same total number of NMs of the different sizes and shapes, the number of NMs associated with the algal cells was a function of NM size and shape (Fig. 3b), ranging from 4.6 × 10⁷ for spherical 100 nm NMs to 5.6 × 10⁸ for spherical 10 nm NMs. It was also detected that not all algal cells had a similar number of NMs associated with their surfaces and the NMs were heterogeneously distributed across the algal cell population, as reported previously^20,28. The daphnids controlled the number of NMs transferring to fish and the biodistribution of the Au-NMs in fish by modifying the size distribution of the Au-NMs (Fig. 3b). Herein we show that trophic transfer of Au-NMs, as determined on the basis of particle number, depends on the physicochemical properties of the NMs and the species.

To understand the biomagnification of the Au-NMs as a function of particle size and shape, the NBMFs were calculated for each pair in the food chain separately (Algae–Daphnia, Daphnia–Fish) and for the entire food chain of Algae–Fish (Fig. 3c). The NBMF of the Algae–Fish was calculated by dividing the total number of the Au-NMs in fish by that in algae. The NBMF of all Au-NMs was higher in the Daphnia–Fish pair compared to Algae–Daphnia (Fig. 3d). We obtained different results for ionic Au (released from the Au-NMs), which showed no transfer from daphnids to fish. Interestingly, the NBMFs of spherical 10 nm and rod-shaped 10 × 45 nm were lower in the Daphnia–Fish and Algae–Fish compared to the other Au-NMs (Fig. 3d). This indicates that only a small portion of the spherical 10 nm and rod-shaped 10 × 45 nm transfer to fish compared to the other Au-NMs tested. This suggests that particle size plays a significant role in the trophic transfer of NMs and the bioavailability of small NMs to fish may be lower than the bioavailability of their larger counterparts.

All of the Au-NMs transferred from daphnids to zebrafish, except for the rod-shaped 10 × 45 nm Au-NMs, accumulate most profoundly in the brain, ranging from 45% for spherical 10 nm particles to 59% for rod-shaped 50 × 100 nm Au-NMs (Fig. 4a). Although the ability of Au-NMs to pass the blood–brain barrier and penetrate the fish brain has been documented previously^53,54, in this study the number of particles that can accumulate in the brain was documented as a function of their properties. It is possible that some of the NMs could be in the vascular compartment of the brain, i.e. the endothelial cells that comprise the blood–brain barrier itself, which has been demonstrated in vitro to be a site of NM accumulation⁵⁵. As the workflow presented in this study has been developed using a set of robust techniques to distinguish between particle and ions, we were able to reproducibly measure the number of Au-NMs in the fish brain tissue (including the endothelial barrier). In general, understanding the number of NMs in the brain is important to determine the effective dose because NMs have a larger surface area than the corresponding bulk material, which means a higher number of molecules on the surface of NM are available for interaction with surrounding biological material.

To date, no study is available to show how the dietary uptake of Au-NMs influences their biodistribution in the fish’s body. Our findings on the biodistribution deviate from those of medical-oriented studies on the distribution of Au-NMs in a variety of organisms. Upon direct injection in the body, as performed in medical-oriented studies, Au-NMs tend to accumulate mainly in the liver, spleen, and kidney^56,57. However, it is likely that when Au-NMs are taken up via the diet, they are more susceptible to transfer to the brain. For example, Unrine et al.³¹ reported that the bioavailability of NMs through trophic exposure is higher than through direct exposure and that trophic transfer may influence the way NMs biodistribute in the bodies of organisms. No general rule for NM accumulation can be established as yet though, due to differences in the research methods and dose metrics applied.

The calculated NBMF of Au-NMs from algae to fish are reported for each fish tissue in Fig. 4b. The mass-based biomagnification factors (MBMFs) are reported in Supplementary Fig. 6. The MBMF showed a similar trend as that determined for NBMF, confirming that there is no dissolution of the Au-NMs in fish, as the calculated mass is proportional to the total mass of the measured particles in fish. The highest number of particles ended up in the brain followed by the liver, as compared to other tissues, except for the rod-shaped 10 × 45 nm NMs. This is in line with suggestions that the liver and brain could be targets for NMs^58,59,60,61 and stresses the importance of evaluating the fate of NMs in fish brains to elucidate whether they undergo a transformation in the brain or accumulate in the particulate form. Nevertheless, overall there was no NBMF in fish, i.e., the numbers of particles in fish tissues were very low and not higher than those in algae. Our finding is in disagreement with previous studies showing the occurrence of biomagnification from biofilm to snail (biomagnification factor > 1.8)⁶² and from bacteria to protozoa (biomagnification factor > 5)⁴, which could be due to the differences in the food chains examined, including the feeding patterns of the organisms involved and whether or not the organisms transform the NMs. It is also related to the fact that the NMs underwent significant dissolution in the daphnia guts but the fish did not accumulate the dissolved Au, which may not be the case for other organisms.

Our results show that persistent NMs such as Au-NMs have the potential to transfer to higher trophic levels via an aquatic food chain. Although algae were exposed to similar numbers of each Au-NM size and shape (spherical 10 nm, spherical 60 nm, spherical 100 nm, rod-shaped 10 × 45 nm and rod-shaped 50 × 100 nm), the EPS provides effective removal of larger particles, leading to a higher initial accumulation of the smaller Au-NMs (spherical 10 nm and rod-shaped 10 × 45 nm) on algae. The association of NMs to algae, as an important gateway for NMs entering aquatic food webs, strongly depended on NM shape and size. Daphnids filter-feed on algae and ingest a considerable amount of algal-associated NMs (between 80%–90% of Au-NMs in algae). However, only a small fraction of the NMs accumulate in daphnids (between 0.73% and 1.7% of the NMs associated with the algae), indicating that Au-NMs are not potentially bioavailable in high concentrations to the higher trophic levels in the aquatic food chain. Daphnids modulates the size distribution of the Au-NMs, through the dissolution of the larger Au-NMs and dissolution-re-precipitation and agglomeration of the smaller Au-NMs, leading all the NMs to have similar sizes (ranging from ~25 nm to 40 nm mass-based size) in daphnids. Only a small fraction of the Au-NMs (between 0.03%–0.48% of the Au-NMs in daphnids) transferred from daphnids to fish. No further transformation and agglomeration of the Au-NMs occurred in fish, but biodistribution was observed in fish, with the brain and liver as the target organs. Excretion of Au-NMs from fish led to re-uptake via fish gills. Our findings, therefore, illustrate what could happen after long-term exposure to Au-NM in a three levels aquatic food chain. Using NM number as a dose metric facilitates the comparison between results reported by different laboratories and provides important insights into the transformations undergone during the tropic transfers which would be lost upon applying mass as the only dose metric. Future research should use the developed analytical workflow to focus on assessing and quantifying other types of NMs and other food chains, given that we observed that the biotransformation and behaviour of NMs in organisms could be species-dependent.

Source: Ecology - nature.com