@ARTICLE{Moosavi, author = {Moosavi, Seyed Mohammad Amin and Khataee, Alireza and Moasses Ghafari, Soroosh and }, title = {Study of the photocatalytic effects of nitrogen-doped titanium dioxide nanoparticles on growth inhibition and apoptosis induction in K562 cell line}, volume = {18}, number = {1}, abstract ={Background and Aim: Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles have shown anti-tumor activity in several cancer cell lines. TiO2 is an effective photocatalyst that needs ultraviolet (UV) light for activation. Many efforts are in progress to improve the TiO2 photocatalytic effects by carrying out superficial alterations in its electronic structure. For this purpose, nitrogen (N) element seems to be a proper dopant to improve photocatalytic activity of this nanoparticle. In the present study, the growth inhibitory and apoptotic effects of N-doped TiO2 nanoparticles on human K562 cells, as an experimental model of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), were investigated and compared with those of undoped TiO2 in both light and dark conditions. Material and Methods: Nanocrystalline powders of N-doped TiO2 (80 nm) were synthesized by mechanical mixing of urea with TiO2 powders under special experimental conditions. The structure and properties of N-doped TiO2 nanoparticles were confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis. Then we investigated the growth inhibitory and apoptotic effects of these nanoparticles on leukemia K562 cells. Results: The results showed that visible light-irradiated N-doped TiO2 induced profound growth inhibition and apoptosis in K562 cells in a time- and dose- dependent manner. For example, N-doped TiO2 at concentrations of 0.01µg/ml, 0.1µg/ml, 1 µg/ml, 5 µg/ml and 10µg/ml inhibited growth of K562 cells by 25%, 34%, 39%, 44% and 47% and viability by 11%, 22%, 30%, 35% and 38%, respectively after 48h. Furthermore, the results of DNA fragmentation assay confirmed apoptosis in treated-K562 cells after 48h. While un-doped TiO2 did not show any inhibitory effects on the growth and viability of K562 cells. Conclusion: Considering the growth inhibitory and apoptotic effects of N-doped TiO2 in human K562 cells, this nanoparticle can be a potential candidate for photocatalytic therapy in CML in the future studies. }, URL = {http://sjku.muk.ac.ir/article-1-1007-en.html}, eprint = {http://sjku.muk.ac.ir/article-1-1007-en.pdf}, journal = {Scientific Journal of Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences}, doi = {}, year = {2013} }