Suárez Oubiña, CristianHerbello Hermelo, PalomaMallo Seijas, NataliaVázquez Ruiz de Ocenda, MaríaCabaleiro, SantiagoPinheiro, Ivone Rodríguez Lorenzo, Laura Espiña, BegoñaBermejo Barrera, PilarMoreda Piñeiro, Antonio2023-07-072023-07-072023Suárez-Oubiña, C., Herbello-Hermelo, P., Mallo, N. et al. Single-cell ICP-MS for studying the association of inorganic nanoparticles with cell lines derived from aquaculture species. Anal Bioanal Chem 415, 3399–3413 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-023-04723-61618-2642http://hdl.handle.net/10347/30849The current research deals with the use of single-cell inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (scICP-MS) for the assessment of titanium dioxide nanoparticle (TiO2 NP) and silver nanoparticle (Ag NP) associations in cell lines derived from aquaculture species (sea bass, sea bream, and clams). The optimization studies have considered the avoidance of high dissolved background, multi-cell peak coincidence, and possible spectral interferences. Optimum operating conditions were found when using a dwell time of 50 μs for silver and 100 μs for titanium. The assessment of associated TiO2 NPs by scICP-MS required the use of ammonia as a reaction gas (flow rate at 0.75 mL min−1) for interference-free titanium determinations (measurements at an m/z ratio of 131 from the 48Ti(NH)(NH3)4 adduct). The influence of other parameters such as the number of washing cycles and the cell concentration on accurate determinations by scICP-MS was also fully investigated. Cell exposure trials were performed using PVP-Ag NPs (15 and 100 nm, nominal diameter) and citrate-TiO2 NPs (5, 25, and 45 nm, nominal diameter) at nominal concentrations of 10 and 50 μg mL−1 for citrate-TiO2 NPs and 5.0 and 50 μg mL−1 for PVP-Ag NPs. Results have shown that citrate-TiO2 NPs interact with the outer cell membranes, being quite low in the number of citrate-TiO2 NPs that enters the cells (the high degree of aggregation is the main factor which leads to the aggregates being in the extracellular medium). In contrast, PVP-Ag NPs have been found to enter the cellseng© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Atribución 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ScICP-MSAmmonia-based reaction cellTitanium dioxide nanoparticlesSilver nanoparticlesNanoparticle uptake in cellsAquaculture speciesjournal article10.1007/s00216-023-04723-61618-2650open access