Biodistribution of Carbon Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes in Mice

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes are promising for use in biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences. Therefore, it becomes imperative to know the basic biological properties of carbon nanotubes in vivo. We labeled the water-soluble hydroxylated carbon single-wall nanotubes with radioactive 125I atoms, and then the tracer was used to study the distribution of hydroxylated carbon single-wall nanotubes in mice. They moved easily among the compartments and tissues of the body, behaving as small active molecules though their apparent mean molecular weight is tremendously large. This study, for the first time, affords a quantitative analysis of carbon nanotubes accumulated in animal tissues.

Studies on toxicity of multi-walled carbon nanotubes on Arabidopsis T87 suspension cells

“…Data on measuring the particle size distribution of the fine-agglomerates of MWCNTs using dynamic light scattering are shown in Figure 8, the MWCNTs present as tube bundles with the size ranging from 400 nm to 6 m. The tube bundles, especially the bundles having the sub-m sizes, in the biological environments, in this study, the JPL media containing the Arabidopsis T87 suspension cells, can be dispersed further into smaller or even into the individual tubes, namely the smallest units of the agglomerates of the CNTs, through the so-called "bio-distribution" [20][21][22][23][24]. The individual tubes together with the agglomerates of smaller sizes, after distributed into the gorges, can be retained in an irreversible manner by the cell walls harbor proteins and polysaccharides through interactions and/or wrappings.…”

Relation between biophysical properties of nanostructures and their toxicity on zebrafish

“…CNTs are able to accumulate in the liver, spleen, kidney, lung, muscle, skin and bones (Deng et al 2007;Wang et al 2004). Although the first studies on the effects of CNTs were performed in the lungs (Fröhlich 2012;Nagel 2001;Yostawonkul et al 2017), several organs and mechanisms of damage are currently being studied to reach a complete toxicological profile of these nanomaterials (Asharani et al 2008;Cheng and Cheng 2012;Usenko et al 2007).…”

Carbon nanotubes inhibit the hemolytic activity of the pore-forming toxin pyolysin

“…The blood circulation half-lives of current CNT carriers range from 0.5 to 3.5 h in mice [3,6,30], which are significantly shorter than that of PEG-grafted liposomes (12 20 h in rats or mice, and 40 60 h in humans) [31]. While some reports have shown renal excretion of certain CNTs [6,32,33], there have also been others showing accumulation in organs such as liver, spleen, and kidney [3,30,34]. Although no acute or short mid term (up to four months) cytotoxic effects on the organs or the test subjects have been reported so far, the long term toxicity and immunogenicity of CNT carriers are unclear.…”