Interaction of industrial graphene and carbon nanotubes with human primary macrophages: Assessment of nanotoxicity and immune responses

Abstract

The use of graphene and carbon nanotubes as part of commercial products has already been implemented in a wide variety of industrial sectors thanks to their outstanding physicochemical properties, opening the door to possible occupational and consumer exposure. Macrophages hold major importance in phagocytosis and immune activation against nanomaterials, so human primary macrophages are the most appropriate human models to obtain adequate information about health effects of nanomaterials. In this study, different types of industrially-employed graphene and carbon nanotubes were compared, to understand how their physicochemical properties affect cell behaviour using primary macrophages extracted from human blood donors. The phagocytic profiles were correlated with the toxicity effects provoked in the macrophages, looking to cell viability, membrane disruption and production of reactive oxygen species. To understand how these commercial nanomaterials could affect immune responses, this work was completed with a comprehensive study involving the activation of macrophages after interaction with the nanomaterials. This study provides conclusive results about the activated macrophage phenotypes and cytokine production profiles, including how the nanomaterials affect the communication of macrophages with the rest of immune cells and providing new insights about how the immune system is able to degrade these carbon-based nanomaterials.