In Vitro Evaluation of Lignin-Containing Nanocellulose

Abstract

The increasing importance of environmental sustainability has led to the development of new materials that are environmentally friendly, functional, and cost-effective. Lignin-containing cellulose nanomaterials are a common example of these. The advantages of lignocelluloses include their renewability, sustainability, and functionality combined with molecular rigidity and enhanced hydrophobicity. In order to valorize these beneficial traits from lignin-containing nanocellulose, various approaches have been examined in industrial applications. However, the safety of these materials has not been tested or validated in humans. In this study, we tested 21 wt% lignin-containing nanocellulose (L-MFC) in vitro using the human lung and kidney cell lines, H460 and HEK293 cells, respectively. The cytotoxicity of cellulose, L-MFC, and lignin was compared using the water-soluble tetrazolium salt assays. In addition, the gene expressions of HSP70 and HSP90 as cellular stress markers treated with cellulose, L-MFC, and lignin were quantified using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Western blotting. Our data indicated little cytotoxicity for cellulose and significant cytotoxicity for lignin and a relatively low level of cytotoxicity for L-MFC, providing the lethal median concentration (LC50) values of L-MFC and lignin. The gene expression of HSP70 and HSP90 was little affected by moderate concentrations of L-MFC. Interestingly, the lignin contained in L-MFC influenced the cell viability and the gene expression of HSP70 and HSP90 less than the same amount of lignin alone. These results indicate that L-MFC displays cell-type-dependent sensitivity and suggest that L-MFC could serve as a new eco-friendly material that is relatively safe for humans.

Arsenic hexoxide has differential effects on cell proliferation and genome-wide gene expression in human primary mammary epithelial and MCF7 cells

“…Cell culture and RNA preparation for real-time PCR were performed as described in 37 . HUMEC and MCF7 cells were grown to 60–70% confluence in six well plates and were replaced with the fresh media before applying AS6 to the target concentrations.…”

“…Statistical analyses were performed as described in 37 . One-way ANOVA, followed by a Tukey’s HSD test, were used to determine differences in toxicity percentages ( P < 0.05) (SAS for Window release 6, SAS Institute).…”

“…www.nature.com/scientificreports/ Real-time PCR. Cell culture and RNA preparation for real-time PCR were performed as described in 37 .…”

Toward cleaner production of nanocellulose: a review and evaluation

“…Nanocellulose has become a hot topic, however, there is relatively less attention paid to the EHS aspects of this nano material. The relevant research is still in the development stage, greatly limiting the application of nanocellulose 179 and lignin-containing nanocellulose 180 in the fields of biomedicine and food. Several reviews [181][182][183][184] summarised the current 171 research progress of nanocellulose in the EHS field, and the main conclusions include the following aspects:…”

Biomaterial and biocompatibility evaluation of tunicate nanocellulose for tissue engineering

“…Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) has been extensively used for medical purposes, including sutures, meshes in hernia-repair surgery, and vascular grafts/patches, and is known for its excellent mechanical properties and biocompatibility [19][20][21][22][23][24]. Other sources of nanocellulose (i.e., synthetic, bacterial, and wood nanocellulose) have been evaluated [1,5,12,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] using human cells; however, their biological disadvantages include inflammatory reactions caused by endotoxins, such as contamination by lipopolysaccharides and cytotoxicity caused by silica particles [35], and lignin [42]. Some of these drawbacks have been reduced by employing different purifying steps and modifications.…”