Biophysical Methods for Testing Nanomaterials in Terms of Biomedical and Ecotoxicological Purposes Using Daphnia magna as a Model Organism

Abstract

The paper presents an overview of image visualization techniques and other biophysical approaches that demonstrate a validity of using higher invertebrate animals that include the crustacean Daphnia magna, a member of the subphylum Crustacea as a test model for biomedical and ecotoxicological studies. The authors describe the main characteristics of animals, such as a transparent body, small size, filter feeding mechanism, the presence of the formed organs, as well as a short life cycle, high fertility and sensitivity to toxicants, which allow the use of this test organism in experiments in vivo as an alternative model to warm-blooded animals. An analysis of the existing literature on the use of D. magna as a model for visualizing the accumulation and distribution of nanomaterials in the body, as well as for analyzing the mechanisms of cytotoxicity is carried out. Methods for fluorescence imaging, interference microscopy and spectrophotometry are described.