Cytotoxicity evaluations of pristine graphene and carbon nanotubes in fibroblastic cells

Abstract

This study concentrates upon investigating differential cellular responses to carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) such as pristine graphene flakes, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and multiwalled CNTs (MWCNTs), in human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) vs. the L-929 fibroblast cell line. Characterizing the surface morphology of each CNP by using scanning electron microscopy, we determined their cytotoxicity profiles by quantifying the mitochondrial activity. Graphene was found to have an irregular flake-like shape with various lengths within the ranges of 50 ∼ 1500 nm. The estimated sizes of the SWCNTs and the MWCNTs were about 400 nm and 1000 nm in diameter, respectively and several µm in length. All the CNPs tested here exerted adverse effects on the viability of HDFs even at 15.6 ppm, through intracellular uptake whereas except MWCNTs, they did not show any cytotoxicity against L-929 cells at 250 ppm. This result suggests that CNPs can have a differential influence on normal fibroblasts vs. immortalized ones.