Realtime Cytotoxicity Characterization with Cell-Microelectronic Sensing of Water Soluble Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

Continuous cytotoxicity characterization of water-soluble carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was reported using a real time celluar analyzing (RTCA) system. The method, which involved the use of microelectrodes-embedded E-plate microwells seeded with cells, was successfully applied to dynamically monitor three water soluble CNTs cytotoxicity towards mouse 3T3 cells. The results demonstrated that cytotoxicity was caused by exposure to individual CNTs, but bundles and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) showed more cytotoxicity with much lower IC₅₀ values than multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). Moreover, the cytotoxicity of MWNTs was decreased when MWNTs were modified with L-Lysine (MWNT-Lys). Conventional MTT assay validated the results.

Keywords:

• carbon nanotubes
• Cell-microelectronic sensing
• characterization
• cytotoxicity
• nanomaterials
• toxicity

The work is sponsored by the key research project (No. 2008IK257) from General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China (AQSIQ) and research project (No. 2008JK6011) from Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine Science (CAIQ). The authors would like to acknowledge Mr. Fugang Deng and Mr. Xin Li from Roche Diagnostics Limited for their kind support of the study.

Notes

^a Data analysis results of ACEA.