Some biological effects of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in vivo and in vitro

抄録

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are a class of new allotrope of carbon. The cytotoxicity of different diametered multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and different structures of carbon nano material including single-wall nanotubes (SWNTs), MWNTs (with diameters ranging from 10 to 20 nm, MWNT10), and fullerene (C-60) were studied. Different functionalized CNTs may vary from their physical and chemical properties to the biological property; we compared the pulmonary toxicity of different functionalized CNTs in vivo. Meanwhile, the translocation and fate of MWNTs or SWNTs were also studied. Our findings indicate that MWNTs in different diameters exhibited quite different cytotoxicity and carbon nanomaterials with different geometric structures exhibit quite different cytotoxicity and bioactivity in vitro. Water-soluble tau-MWNTs in low and medium doses induce slight and recoverable pulmonary inflammation in mice, and are less toxic than the insoluble raw MWNTs. After mice were exposed by intravenous injection, MWCNTs predominately accumulated in liver and retained for long time. The similar results were found for SWNTs in intravenously exposed mice. These results are useful for optimized application of carbon nanotube and nanotechnology safety.