An Approach to Tentative Reference Levels Setting for Nanoparticles in the Workroom Air Based on Comparing Their Toxicity with That of Their Micrometric Counterparts: A Case Study of Iron Oxide Fe₃O₄

Table 4

Some indices to the status of the organism of rats under subchronic intraperitoneal exposure to magnetite particles of different size during 5 weeks up to total dose of 7500 mg per kg body mass (𝑥±s.e.).

Indices	Groups of rats
	Control group	Rats exposed to magnetite particles of nominal size
		10 nm	50 nm	1 μm
Initial body mass, g	184.23 ± 1.11	184.62 ± 1.55	186.15 ± 1.15	185.38 ± 1.32
Body mass after the exposure period, g	215.42 ± 3.96	213.46 ± 2.85	218.46 ± 2.91	219.6 ± 4.5
Number of head dips into holes during 3 min	7.67 ± 1.07	4.08 ± 0.86^a	4.45 ± 0.87^a	4.0 ± 0.6^a
Hemoglobin, g/L	130.13 ± 2.94	140.70 ± 4.13^c	134.1 ± 3.7	126.74 ± 3.29
Reticulocytes, ‰	11.3 ± 0.7	53.62 ± 1.91^abc	36.73 ± 1.21^ac	14.72 ± 1.24^a
SDH activity, number of granules per 50 lymphocytes	764.7 ± 15.2	692.73 ± 8.7^ac	703.5 ± 8.6^ac	762.30 ± 10.95
Lymphocytes, %	54.42 ± 2.02	44.08 ± 1.68^ac	43.5 ± 3.1^a	51.0 ± 2.4
Segmented neutrophils, %	28.92 ± 2.07	41.23 ± 1.81^ac	40.85 ± 2.71^ac	30.67 ± 3.15
Band neutrophils, %	1.08 ± 0.19	1.38 ± 0.18	1.92 ± 0.26^a	1.42 ± 0.19
Total protein content of blood serum, g/L	78.23 ± 1.56	60.64 ± 2.03^ac	65.69 ± 2.13^ac	76.73 ± 1.79
Albumin in blood serum, g/L	44.09 ± 1.39	41.22 ± 2.18	36.91 ± 1.78^a	38.94 ± 1.33^a
Globulins in blood serum, g/L	34.14 ± 1.30	19.42 ± 1.47^abc	28.79 ± 2.21^c	37.8 ± 1.8
Albumin/globulin ratio	0.79 ± 0.05	0.50 ± 0.06^abc	0.82 ± 0.09	0.99 ± 0.07^a
Alkaline phosphatase in blood serum, nMol/(s ∗ l)	928.18 ± 127.05	1244.9 ± 213.4^c	1144.67 ± 143.90^c	700.51 ± 76.92
γ-glutamin transferase activity in blood serum, nMol/(s ∗ l)	1889.12 ± 126.90	2408.76 ± 118.46^ac	2294.48 ± 131.39^a	1982.77 ± 71.1
AST activity in blood serum, mM/(h ∗ l)	1.25 ± 0.04	1.31 ± 0.04^c	1.29 ± 0.04^c	1.13 ± 0.04^a
De Ritis coefficient	1.29 ± 0.07	1.70 ± 0.14^ab	1.33 ± 0.07	1.4 ± 0.1
Iron in blood serum, mg/L	4.23 ± 5.12	9.22 ± 1.02^ab	14.4 ± 0.93^ac	5.05 ± 0.42
MDA in blood serum, nMol/L	4.39 ± 0.11	6.01 ± 0.36^ac	6.3 ± 0.3^ac	4.42 ± 0.11
Ceruloplasmin in blood serum, mg/L	23.72 ± 2.05	31.45 ± 1.95^ac	27.77 ± 1.80	24.78 ± 2.16
Daily urine volume, mL	30.3 ± 3.6	40.56 ± 4.46	44.80 ± 3.55^ac	34.90 ± 2.54
Coproporphyrin in urine nM/L	71.15 ± 9.80	127.49 ± 23.17^a	121.18 ± 18.99^a	142.83 ± 25.02^a
Coproporphyrin in urine nM/24 h	2.05 ± 0.28	4.86 ± 0.96^a	4.99 ± 0.86^a	4.98 ± 1.15^a
𝛿-ALA in urine μM/24 h	0.34 ± 0.04	0.42 ± 0.07	0.58 ± 0.06^ac	0.39 ± 0.04
Creatinine in urine, mMol/L	0.12 ± 0.02	0.16 ± 0.02	0.24 ± 0.04^ac	0.12 ± 0.01
Creatinine in urine, μMol/24 h	4.07 ± 0.91	6.78 ± 1.42	11.25 ± 2.16^ac	4.24 ± 0.57
Spleen mass, g	0.81 ± 0.04	1.01 ± 0.11	1.05 ± 0.09^a	0.89 ± 0.08
Liver mass, g	7.44 ± 0.37	9.13 ± 0.27^a	9.34 ± 0.49^a	7.94 ± 0.52

^aDesignates values that are statistically significantly different from control values; ^bthe same from the value for the group of rats administered 50 nm particles; ^cthe same from the “1 μm” group ( 𝑃≤0.05 by Student 𝑡-test).