The effect of gold and silver nanoparticles on reproductive system: The review article

Nanotechnology is a branch of the developing science which includes producing, manipulating and applying materials at smaller scales than a micron. Nanoparticles are used for many purposes in medicine and science, including cancer treatment, dental alloys, bladder catheters, drug delivery, and etc. One of the factors which is subjected to the toxicity of nanoparticles, is reproductive system and fertility, because these substances accumulate in the gonads and cause the incidence of some health problems such as inflammation of the epididymis, reduced sperm motility, sperm morphology defects and in general, infertility and defects in the reproductive system. Since fertility and its health is so important in the society, and its consequences affect the entire population, this study aimed at investigating the effects of gold and silver nanoparticles on the reproductive system.
The present review article was performed by using the research articles indexed in Pubmed, Google scholar, Science direct and SID. Also the results of the search were evaluated in a systematic manner. The results show that the effect of silver and gold nanoparticles on reproductive system could vary from ineffective to the negative effects, depending on the dose, exposure duration and the sample of study.