Notice of RetractionReproductive Toxicity of Anatase TiO2 Nanoparticles in Caenorhabditis elegans

Notice of Retraction

After careful and considered review of the content of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE´s Publication Principles.

We hereby retract the content of this paper. Reasonable effort should be made to remove all past references to this paper.

The presenting author of this paper has the option to appeal this decision by contacting TPII@ieee.org.

The potential harmful effects of manufactured nanoparticles have caused great attention in recent years. However, the particle size effect on the toxicity of nanoparticles is still largely unknown. In the present study, we investigated the physicochemical properties of anatase titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO₂) at either 5 nm or 40 nm and their reproductive toxicity effects on Caenorhabditis elegans. There was a dose-dependent increase of germ cell death in C. elegans exposed to 5 nm TiO₂ at graded concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 10 μg/mL for 24 h. The brood size was dramatically decreased in a dose-dependent manner in C. elegans exposed to TiO₂ at 5 nm, while the brood size was not much altered by TiO₂ at 40 nm. Our data clearly demonstrated that the particle size played an essential role in the reproductive toxicity of TiO₂ nanoparticles in C. elegans.