Adverse effects and underlying mechanism of rare earth elements

Wang, Xuemei; Wang, Feiyu; Yan, Lirong; Gao, Zhixiang; Yang, Shengbo; Su, Zhigang; Chen, Wenting; Li, Yanan; Wang, Fenghong

doi:10.1186/s12940-025-01178-3

Environmental Health

Table 1 Toxicological effects of REEs on respiratory, cardiovascular, and digestive systems

From: Adverse effects and underlying mechanism of rare earth elements

Organ	Element	drug delivery route	Test model	Main effects	References
Lung	LaCl₃、CeCl₃、Nd₂O₃		Male Sprague–Dawley rat	Lung fibrosis	[125]
	Nd₂O₃	Nd₂O₃ exposure on rat NR8383	Rat NR8383 alveolar macrophages	Caused cell damage and enhanced synthesis and release of inflammatory chemokines	[77]
	CeO₂ NPs	Expose	Alveolar A549 and bronchial BEAS- 2B epithelial cells	Downregulation of gene transcription	[149]
	CeO₂、TiO₂	Oropharyngeal	CD- 1 mice	Lung inflammatory	[88]
	La₂O₃	Expose nose to La₂O₃	Male rats	Alveolar protein deposition and pulmonary inflammation	[137]
	CeO₂	Endotracheal instillation	Male Sprague–Dawley rat	Lung phospholipid deposition and fibrosis	[111]
	CeO₂	Inhalation	Rat	Lung inflammation	[135]
	La₂O₃	Whole-body inhalation exposure	C57BL/6 J mice	Chronic inflammatory changes and mild fibrosis	[138]
	CeO₂	Intratracheal instillation	Male Sprague–Dawley	Lung fibrosis	[110]
	CeO₂	Intratracheal instillation	C57BL/6 J mice	Damage to lung development	[126]
Heart	YCl₃	Different concentrations of YCl₃	Rat H9c2 cardiomyocytes	DNA damage	[165]
	YCl₃	Intragastric administration	Male Kunming mice	Lipid peroxidation and inflammation in the heart	[166]
	Ce	Treated with CeCl₃	Wistar rat	Endomyocardial fibrosis	[90]
	CeO₂ NPs	Nose-only inhalation to CeO₂ NPs	C57BL/6 J mice, mice prone to cardiovascular disease and a mouse model of neurological disease	Cardiovascular dysfunction	[41]
	16 REEs (LaCl₃, CeCl₃, PrCl₃, SmCl₃, TbCl₃, DyCl₃, YbCl₃, ScCl₃ NdCl₃, EuCl₃, GdCl₃, HoCl₃, ErCl₃, TmCl₃, LuCl₃, and YCl₃)	Exposure of 16 REEs	Zebrafish embryo	Cardiac hypertrophy and myocardial contraction	[186]
Liver	CeO₂ NPs	Expose in CeO₂ NPs	A549, CaCo₂, and HepG2 cell lines	Toxic to all tested cell lines	[39]
	La, Ce, Pd, Nd, and Gd	Intragastric administration	SD rats	The accumulation of REEs in the liver was irreversible	[21]
	Pr(NO₃)₃	Intravenous injection	Female Wistar rats	Fatty livers	[92]
	CeCl₃	Oral administration	Male CD- 1 mice	Liver inflammation, and hepatocyte necrosis	[34]
	La	Intragastric administration	Male CD- 1 mice	Impairing liver function	[33]

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ISSN: 1476-069X

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