Cytotoxicity of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes in Human Neural Precursor Cells on Monolayer Culture and Rat Brain Slices

Abstract

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are one of the most concerned nanomaterials which have highly desirable mechanical and physicochemical properties. Therefore, various biomedical uses of SWCNTs, such as in drug delivery, biosensor technology, and gene therapy, have been investigated. This study explored the cytotoxicity and apoptotic damage of SWCNTs on 2-dimentional (2D) cultivated human neural precursor cells (hNPCs) and rat brain slices. Three types of SWCNTs with different length size that are SWCNT 1, SWCNT 2 and SWCNT 3 were tested. In this study, cytotoxicity of SWCNTs showed in the presence of 10 mu g similar to 1 mg/ml SWCNT 1, 100 mu g similar to 1 mg/ml SWCNT 2, and 100 ng similar to 1 mg/ml SWCNT 3 in 2D cell. Caspase activity as apoptotic marker in the brain slices treated with SWCNTs was slightly increased relative to those of the control. In addition, cytotoxic effect on calcein activity was nearly consistent with the observed apoptotic effect of brain slices. Taken together, SWCNTs have cytotoxicity in the in vitro while it was a less toxicity on the mimic in vivo excluding its high concentration.