Impact of physiological media and sterilization methods on the physicochemical characteristics of engineered CNCs, and the effects on nanomaterial-protein interactions and immunological activity

Abstract

The biological properties of nanomaterials are impacted by their interactions with biomolecules. The interaction of nanomaterials with proteins is highly influenced by the intrinsic physicochemical properties of the nanomaterials as well as by the surrounding environment. In this study, we assessed surface charge, apparent particle size and size distribution of autoclaved and filtered colloidal suspensions of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) in different physiologically media. We also investigated the protein corona of these preparations of CNCs in cell culture medium with serum, using gel electrophoresis and silver staining. Furthermore, we evaluated their immune properties in cell-based assays. Our results indicated that regardless of the sterilization methods, their intrinsic physicochemical properties were most affected by the medium. The autoclaved suspensions of CNCs showed the most quantity of associated proteins, while the filtered suspensions showed the greatest variety of it. The immune activity of colloidal suspensions of CNCs was cell type- and cytokine- dependent.