Protective effect of hydrogen peroxide during erythrocyte hemolysis by silver nanoparticles

Abstract

The mechanisms of regulation of adaptation of erythrocytes by hydrogen peroxide during hemolysis induced by silver nanoparticles have been studied using numerical modeling and spectrophotometric analysis. It was shown that silver nanoparticles induced erythrocyte hemolysis, the rate of which depended on the total concentration of silver and the ion content in the solution. Hemolysis of erythrocytes with silver nitrate proceeded twice as fast as with nanoparticles. It was found that hydrogen peroxide increased the structural stability of erythrocytes during hemolysis induced by silver nanoparticles and silver nitrate. The range of hydrogen peroxide concentrations at which an increase in the proportion of non-hemolysed cells (the hormesis region) was observed depended on the time of cell destruction under the action of a damaging factor. The maximum of hormesis was observed at a concentration of hydrogen peroxide of 1250 μM under damage induced by silver nanoparticles; it was 700 μM under damage induced by silver nitrate. Numerical modeling has shown that the dependence of the maximum of hormesis on the concentration of extracellular hydrogen peroxide and incubation time was due to the dynamic nature of cytoplasmic mechanisms regulating the ratio of membrane complexes of methemoglobin and ferryl hemoglobin.

Keywords: hormesis, adaptation, hydrogen peroxide, erythrocytes, methemoglobin, silver nanoparticles