Silver Nanoparticles Mitigate the Cell Damage Caused by Ethanol, Study Suggests

ScienceDaily

ScienceDaily (June 7, 2010) — A new article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) describes how nanoparticles formed by very small numbers of silver atoms can protect against the cell damage caused by ethanol.

The study was led by researchers from the University of Barcelona and conducted in conjunction with the Magnetism and Nanotechnology laboratory of the University of Santiago de Compostela.

"The results of the study show that these clusters of small numbers of silver atoms catalyze ethanol oxidation at similar concentrations to those found in the blood of alcoholics and at values of membrane potential and pH that are compatible with those exhibited by mammalian cells," explains Gustavo Egea, a professor with the Department of Cell Biology, Immunology and Neurosciences of the Faculty of Medicine at the UB and an affiliated researcher for the Institute of Nanosciences and Nanotechnology (IN2UB) and the August Pi i Sunyer Miomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS).

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