Air pollution, ultrafine and nanoparticle toxicology: cellular and molecular interactions

This paper looks at studies that have been done on respirable air pollution particles, ultrafine industry produced particles that have many similarities to nanoparticles, and found that in these studies the particles generate reactive oxygen species to a greater extent then larger particles leading to increased transcription of pro-inflammatory mediators via intracellular signaling pathways including calcium and oxidative stress. The authors conclude that more work is required to see if the conclusions drawn for ultrafine air pollution particles can be extrapolated to engineered nanoparticles, especially because of widely varying characteristics of different kinds of nanoparticles.