Carbon nanoparticles alleviate oxidative stress on BY-2 cells via promoting potassium accumulation

Abstract

Carbon nanomaterials have been widely applied in promoting plant growth, but the effects on plants should require careful investigation. In our study, BY-2 cells were exposed to carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) with concentration of 0–125 μg/mL, for the purpose of better investigating the relationship between oxidative stress and potassium accumulation in BY-2 cells induced by CNPs. The results showed that CNPs significantly increased in the content of K+ and reduced Na+ content compared to control group, while oxidative stress was observed with no significantly changes, including H2O2 and malondialdehyde (MDA) content, antioxidant activities. These results might be associated with the content of potassium in cells, which had negative correlation with H2O2 content, as well as CAT antioxidant enzymes activity. Furthermore, IBR value is all less than 2 under the experiment concentration, indicating BY-2 cells are insensitive to CNPs exposure. The most important metabolites were clustered into three groups according to the concentration of CNPs (control, low concentration (0, 6.25, 31.25) and high concentration (62.50 and 125.00). Our findings indicate that CNPs can alleviate oxidative stress through increasing in potassium content in BY-2 cells, and also shed light on understanding the underlying mechanism of toxicity of carbon nanomaterials in plant.