The Impact of Background-Level Carboxylated Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWCNTs−COOH) on Induced Toxicity in Caenorhabditis elegans and Human Cells

Jian-He Lu, Wen-Che Hou, Ming-Hsien Tsai, Yu-Ting Chang and How-Ran Chao
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Jian-He Lu: Emerging Compounds Research Center, General Research Service Center, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung 912, Taiwan
Wen-Che Hou: Department of Environmental Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan
Ming-Hsien Tsai: Department of Child Care, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung 912, Taiwan
Yu-Ting Chang: Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung 912, Taiwan
How-Ran Chao: Emerging Compounds Research Center, General Research Service Center, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung 912, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 3, 1-18

Abstract: Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are widely utilized for industrial, biomedical, and environmental purposes. The toxicity of Carboxylated SWCNTs (SWCNTs−COOH) in in vivo models, particularly Caenorhabditis elegans ( C. elegans ), and in vitro human cells is still unclear. In this study, C. elegans was used to study the effects of SWCNTs−COOH on lethality, lifespan, growth, reproduction, locomotion, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, and the antioxidant system. Our data show that exposure to ≥1 μg·L −1 SWCNTs−COOH could induce toxicity in nematodes that affects lifespan, growth, reproduction, and locomotion behavior. Moreover, the exposure of nematodes to SWCNTs−COOH induced ROS generation and the alteration of antioxidant gene expression. SWCNTs−COOH induced nanotoxic effects at low dose of 0.100 or 1.00 μg·L −1 , particularly for the expression of antioxidants (SOD-3, CTL-2 and CYP-35A2). Similar nanotoxic effects were found in human cells. A low dose of SWCNTs−COOH induced ROS generation and increased the expression of catalase, MnSOD, CuZnSOD, and SOD-2 mRNA but decreased the expression of GPX-2 and GPX-3 mRNA in human monocytes. These findings reveal that background-level SWCNTs−COOH exerts obvious adverse effects, and C. elegans is a sensitive in vivo model that can be used for the biological evaluation of the toxicity of nanomaterials.

Keywords: Caenorhabditis elegans; carboxylated single-walled carbon nanotubes; nanotoxicity; in vivo; environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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