Abstract
This study aimed to determine the in vitro cytotoxicity and mutagenicity of graphene flake (GF) and aqueous graphene paste (AGP) in order to evaluate their potential for application as biomaterials. Furthermore, their antitumor activity against adherent and suspended cells, namely, human breast adenocarcinoma cells (MDA-MB-231), and human monocytes from histiocytic lymphoma (U-937), was investigated. The results demonstrated that GF reduced the viability and proliferation of NIH3T3 immortalized murine fibroblasts for concentrations >0.8 µg/mL and incubation times of 48 and 72 h. AGP showed no toxic effects in any of the tested concentrations and incubation times. The same results were obtained for MDA-MB-231 cells. The viability of the U-937 cells was not affected by either GF or AGP. The Ames test showed that GF and AGP were not genotoxic against Salmonella typhimurium strains TA98 and TA100, with and without metabolic activation. The present study demonstrated good in vitro cellular compatibility of GF and AGP and. Among these, AGP was the best material as it did not interfere, at any of the tested concentrations, with cell viability and proliferation for up to 72 h of incubation. In any case, neither material induced alterations to cell morphology and were not mutagenic.
Highlights
The material called graphene, obtained by the micromechanical cleavage of graphite [1], is an atomically thick sheet of sp2-hybridized carbon atoms forming a flat honeycomb structure [2]
The percentage of viable cells in the presence of graphene flake (GF) decreased compared to the negative control for concentrations from 0.8 to 20 μg/mL and incubation times of 48 and 72 h, but only the highest concentration reduced the percentage of viable cells by more than 30% in comparison to the negative control
The antitumor activity of GF and aqueous graphene paste (AGP) was evaluated by neutral red uptake (NRU) assay on both human breast adenocarcinoma cells (MDA-MB-231) and human monocytes from trast, GF reduced the percentage of viable cells compared to the negative control for concentrations from 0.8 to 20 μg/mL and incubation times of 48 and 72 h
Summary
The material called graphene, obtained by the micromechanical cleavage of graphite [1], is an atomically thick sheet of sp2-hybridized carbon atoms forming a flat honeycomb structure [2]. Applications of graphene are influenced by its hydrophobicity and, by the impossibility of obtaining stable dispersions in polar solvents [3] This problem has been overcome by introducing oxygen-containing functional groups in the graphene structure to obtain graphene oxide (GO) [4]. GO shows reduced thermal stability in comparison to the unmodified material but can interact with polar solvents or polymeric matrices, and for these reasons is the most-studied graphene form in biological research. The modification of both graphene and GO make it possible to obtain graphene-based materials (GBMs) which possess suitable properties for specific applications [5,6,7,8]. Graphene flake is of the most popular forms of graphene, and is used in conductive inks, nanofluids, supercapacitors, composites, and hybrid materials with practical utility in a wide range of applications [9]; it can be obtained in the form of a stable dispersion [10]
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