Nanotechnology deals with engineering at the molecular scale. Materials reduced to nanoparticles behave in ways dissimilar to those we're used to - altering their reactivity, surface area to volume and any number of other properties. While larger TiO2 particles are commonly used in paints and sunblocks, nanoparticles of TiO2 are specially created for new applications in coatings and self-cleaning surfaces and their effects on living tissue are only beginning to be understood. It should be noted that this gene expression data cannot be interpreted as a direct health effect. In addition, the nanoparticles were deliberately injected at a high dose, so the relevance to real-life exposure may be limited.

Full bibliographic information: Maternal exposure to nanoparticulate titanium dioxide during the prenatal period alters gene expression related to brain development in the mouse Midori Shimizu, Hitoshi Tainaka, Taro Oba, Keisuke Mizuo, Masakazu Umezawa and Ken Takeda Particle and Fibre Toxicology (in press)

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