Dissolution plays an important role on pulmonary toxicity of nanomaterials (NMs). The influence of contextual parameters on the results from dissolution testing needs to be identified to improve the generation of relevant and comparable data. This study investigated how pre-dispersions made in water, low-calcium Gamble's solution, phagolysosomal simulant fluid (PSF), and 0.05% bovine serum albumin (BSA) affected the dissolution of the Al2O3 coating on poorly soluble TiO2 also coated with glycerine (NM-104) and rapidly dissolving uncoated (NM-110) and triethoxycaprylsilane-coated ZnO (NM-111) NMs. Dissolution tests were undertaken and controlled in a stirred batch reactor using low-calcium Gamble's solution and phagolysosomal simulant fluid a surrogate for the lung-lining and macrophage phagolysosomal fluid, respectively. Pre-dispersion in 0.05% BSA-water showed a significant delay or decrease in the dissolution of Al2O3 after testing in both low-calcium Gamble's solution and PSF. Furthermore, use of the 0.05% BSA pre-dispersion medium influenced the dissolution of ZnO (NM-110) in PSF and ZnO (NM-111) in low-calcium Gamble's solution and PSF. We hypothesize that BSA forms a protective coating on the particles, which delays or lowers the short-term dissolution of the materials used in this study. Consequently, the type of pre-dispersion medium can affect the results in short-term dissolution testing.
Keywords: ICP-MS; biosimulant fluids; dissolution; nanomaterials; pre-dispersion.