Cellular Toxicity and Immunological Effects of Carbon-based Nanomaterials

Abstract

Background Carbon nanomaterials are a growing family of materials featuring unique physicochemical properties, and their widespread application is accompanied by increasing human exposure. Main body Considerable efforts have been made to characterize the potential toxicity of carbon nanomaterials in vitro and in vivo. Many studies have reported various toxicology profiles of carbon nanomaterials. The different results of the cytotoxicity of the carbon-based materials might be related to the differences in the physicochemical properties or structures of carbon nanomaterials, types of target cells and methods of particle dispersion, etc. The reported cytotoxicity effects mainly included reactive oxygen species generation, DNA damage, lysosomal damage, mitochondrial dysfunction and eventual cell death via apoptosis or necrosis. Despite the cellular toxicity, the immunological effects of the carbon-based nanomaterials, such as the pulmonary macrophage activation and inflammation induced by carbon nanomaterials, have been thoroughly studied. The roles of carbon nanomaterials in activating different immune cells or inducing immunosuppression have also been addressed. Conclusion: Here, we provide a review of the latest research findings on the toxicological profiles of carbon-based nanomaterials, highlighting both the cellular toxicities and immunological effects of carbon nanomaterials. This review provides information on the overall status, trends, and research needs for toxicological studies of carbon nanomaterials.

Bone Tissue Engineering via Carbon‐Based Nanomaterials

“…Generally speaking, carbon‐based materials are inherently less toxic than metal‐ or semiconductor‐based materials considering the nature of carbon. Still, cytotoxicities of carbon‐based nanomaterials have been reported in various studies . For example, Magrez and co‐workers have shown that carbon nanomaterials such as MWCNTs, carbon nanofibers, and carbon NPs are toxic.…”

Functionalized, Vertically Super-Aligned Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes for Potential Biomedical Applications

“…Cell viability was much better in the medium and low concentration range, as opposed to the high concentration range. Yuan and colleagues evaluated the effects of MWCNTs on macrophages and found that long MWCNTs were more toxic than short MWCNTs [29]. As these carbon nanotubes were suspended in culture medium and ultrasonicated prior to use, the toxicity could be due to the fact that CNTs were not functionalized.…”

Wear Resistant Nanocomposites Based on Biomedical Grade UHMWPE Paraffin Oil and Carbon Nano-Filler: Preliminary Biocompatibility and Antibacterial Activity Investigation

“…Previous studies evidenced that multiwall carbon nanotubes caused a significant time-and dose-dependent decrease in cells' viability [42,43], and that they could be toxic at sufficiently high concentrations. Indeed, it was reported that carbon nanomaterials present significantly different cytotoxicity depending on their physicochemical properties, including size, length, shape, and surface area [44][45][46]. The lack of filler coalescence, defined as a consequence of CNF incorporation, suggested the constitution of an improved UHMWPE-based material, in which the absence of debris could favour the slowing down of inflammatory and oxidative stress effects commonly ascribed to these materials [47][48][49][50][51][52].…”