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. 2016 Feb 16;6:21133. doi: 10.1038/srep21133

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Copyright © 2016, Macmillan Publishers Limited

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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SiO₂ NPs induce cellular ROS production through multiple pathways including the activation of NOX1 and NOX5. The increased cellular ROS activates the transcription factor Nrf2 which induces the transcription of FST. FST further inhibits the expression of NOX1 and NOX5. This negative feedback loop maintains cellular ROS homeostasis during SiO₂ NP exposure (left panel). Elimination of FST breaks the feedback loop which increases cellular ROS level and induces cell apoptosis (right panel).