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    Impacts of chain and head lengths of nonionic alkyl ethoxylate surfactants on cytotoxicity to human corneal and skin cells in agri-spraying processes

    Year: 2022

    Journal: J. Colloid Interface Sci., Volume 628, DEC 15, page 162–173

    Authors: Hu, Xuzhi; Carter, Jessica; Ge, Tianhao; Liao, Mingrui; Stephens, Anna Margaret; Mclnnes, Elizabeth F.; Padia, Faheem; Lu, Jian R.

    Organizations: Industrial Collaboration Fund project from University of Manchester; Syngenta (United Kingdom) [R126013]; Syngenta [P120479, KTP 12697]; Innovate UK [KTP 12697]; EPSRC; STFC; China Scholarship Council; Marie Curie Fellowship ITN grant (United Kingdom) [608184]

    Keywords: Lipid membrane; Surfactants; Membrane binding; Cytotoxicity; Agrochemicals; Lipid monolayer; Liposomes; Necrosis

    Hypothesis: Nonionic surfactants are widely used as co-formulants in agrochemical sprays. During spray-ing, they may come into direct contact with humans and animals, causing irritation in different tissues. However, how the molecular structures of these surfactants affect their toxicity towards human eye and skin at the cellular level has not been well characterised.Experiment: In this study, the cytotoxicities of two sets of nonionic surfactants (alkyl ethoxylate, CnEm) against human corneal and skin cell lines were examined, with one set composed of varied surfactant head length but fixed tail length (C12E4-23) and the other set oppositely composed (C10-16E6). The cell via-bility and morphology against different nonionic surfactants for varied exposure times were studied, fol-lowed by characterisation of their membrane-lytic ability.Finding: Nonionic surfactants with intermediate amphiphilicity killed cells rapidly due to their strong membrane-lytic power. Those with weak or strong hydrophobicity exhibited low cytotoxicity but had different modes of action depending on their hydrophobicity. Hydrophobic surfactants were found to adsorb on to cell membranes with no observed structural damage for 2 hr. Hydrophilic surfactants were also found to adsorb on to cell membranes but did cause mild structural changes. While the changes were not sufficient to elicit large cytoplasmic leakage over short periods of time, membrane associations did cause cell shrinkage which eventually resulted in cell death over longer exposure peri-ods. These results revealed that the specific amphiphilic nature of nonionic surfactants played a crucial role in determining their cytotoxicity. This work provided a useful basis for the assessment of amphiphilicity of the nonionic surfactants used in agrochemical sprays by balancing their efficiency, toxicity and environmental impact.(c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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