Article Studies on fate and toxicity of nanoalumina in male albino rats: some haematological, biochemical and histological aspects Gamal M Morsy, Kawther S Abou El-Ala and Atef A Ali Abstract The work aimed to evaluate the nanoalumina toxicity on the histological architecture, some haemato- logical and biochemical aspects in male albino rats, during acute and sublethal experiments. Rats, in acute experiments, were injected with a single-acute dose of 3.9 g or 6.4 g or 8.5 g of aluminium oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) kg 1 , whereas those of sublethal were injected with 1.3 g of Al 2 O 3 kg 1 2 days 1 . One-way analysis of variance indicated that injected doses and the experimental periods were significantly affected by haemo- globin (Hb) content; haematocrit value (Hct); white blood cell (WBC) count; blood platelet (Plt) count; mean corpuscular volume (MCV); mean corpuscular Hb (MCH) and MCH concentration (MCHC). In acute experiments, Hct, WBC count, MCV and Plt were significantly higher than the corresponding con- trols, whereas Hb, MCH and MCHC markedly decreased. In comparison with the related controls after 1, 3 and 7 days post-injection, red blood cell count, Hb, Hct, WBC count, Plt and MCV were significantly increased, but begun to decrease after 14 or/and 28 days and were associated with a marked decrease in MCH and MCHC. In serum of rats injected with acute or sublethal dose, the concentrations of total pro- tein (TP) and total lipid (TL) were significantly lesser than the corresponding controls, whereas the levels of urea, uric acid, creatinine and the activities of aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase were markedly increased. The injected doses were directly proportional with all the studied biochemical parameter, except the TL and TP that exhibited a negative correlation. Histologically, the highest acute and sublethal doses of nanoalumina caused hepatic irregular disarray, necrosis to the hepatic and Kupffer cells that are associated with congested blood sinusoids. The renal tissues characterized by the appear- ance of inter-tubular congestion that is accompanied by the dilation of the vascular glomeruli that com- pletely occupied Bowman’s capsule and accompanied with partial disappearance of the renal tubule’s brush border. The brain showed a progressive degeneration of neurons in both the experiments. Keywords Nanoalumina, rats, acute, sublethal, haematological, biochemical, histological Introduction Nanoparticles are classified as being materials in which at least one dimension of the material is less than 100 nanometers in diameter (Burklew et al., 2012). The study of nanoparticles is becoming an area of research interest due to their unique properties, such as having increased electrical conductivity, duc- tility, toughness and formability of ceramics, increas- ing the hardness and strength of metals and alloys and by increasing the luminescent efficiency of semicon- ductors (Rittner and Abraham, 1998). Nanoparticles are used in an industrial setting because they can be used to manufacture lightweight, strong materials as well as act as pigments in products such as paints, sunscreens and cosmetics (Burklew Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt Corresponding author: Gamal M Morsy, Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Cairo, Giza 020223, Egypt. Email: gamalmohamedmorsy@yahoo.com Toxicology and Industrial Health 1–22 © The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0748233713504022 tih.sagepub.com