journal article·2007-11

Direct imaging of single-walled carbon nanotubes in cells

Alexandra E. Porter, Mhairi Gass, Karin Muller, Jeremy N. Skepper, Paul A. Midgley, Mark Welland

Nature Nanotechnology· Volume 2· Issue 11
Publisher page

Abstract

The development of single-walled carbon nanotubes for various biomedical applications is an area of great promise. However, the contradictory data on the toxic effects of single-walled carbon nanotubes highlight the need for alternative ways to study their uptake and cytotoxic effects in cells. Single-walled carbon nanotubes have been shown to be acutely toxic in a number of types of cells, but the direct observation of cellular uptake of single-walled carbon nanotubes has not been demonstrated previously due to difficulties in discriminating carbon-based nanotubes from carbon-rich cell structures. Here we use transmission electron microscopy and confocal microscopy to image the translocation of single-walled carbon nanotubes into cells in both stained and unstained human cells. The nanotubes were seen to enter the cytoplasm and localize within the cell nucleus, causing cell mortality in a dose-dependent manner.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Carbon Nanotubes in Composites · Nanoparticles: synthesis and applications · Neuroscience and Neural Engineering

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

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