Genotoxicity evaluation of graphene derivatives by a battery of in vitro assays

Abstract

The interest of graphene materials has increased markedly in the recent years for their promising applications in many fields as food packing. These new applications have caused some concern regarding their safety for consumers since the intake of these materials may increase. In this sense, a battery of in vitro test is required before its use as a food contact material. Then, the aim of this study was to assess the potential mutagenicity and genotoxicity of graphene oxide (GO) and reduced-graphene oxide (rGO) following the recommendations of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Thus, the mouse lymphoma assay (MLA) and the micronucleus test (MN) were performed in L5178YTk ± cells, and the Caco-2 cells were used for the standard and modified comet assays. The results indicated that GO (0–250 μg/mL) was not mutagenic in the MLA. However, rGO revealed mutagenic activity from 250 μg/mL and 125 μg/mL after 4h and 24h of exposure, respectively. In the MN test, negative results were obtained for both compounds at the concentrations assayed (0–250 μg/mL) for GO/rGO. Moreover, no DNA strand breaks, or oxidative DNA damage were detected in Caco-2 cells exposed to GO (0–250 μg/mL) and rGO (0–176.3 μg/mL for 24h and 0–166.5 μg/mL for 48h). Considering the mutagenic potential of rGO observed further investigation is needed to describe its toxic profile.