Bardi Giuseppe, Tognini Paola, Ciofani Gianni, Raffa Vittoria, Costa Mario, Pizzorusso Tommaso
Institute of Neurosciences, National Research Council, Pisa, Italy.
Nanomedicine. 2009 Mar;5(1):96-104. doi: 10.1016/j.nano.2008.06.008. Epub 2008 Aug 8.
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are nanodevices with important potential applications in biomedicine such as drug and gene delivery. Brain diseases with no current therapy could be candidates for CNT-based therapies. Little is known about toxicity of CNTs and of their dispersion factors in the brain. Here we show that multiwall CNTs (MWCNTs) coated with Pluronic F127 (PF127) surfactant can be injected in the mouse cerebral cortex without causing degeneration of the neurons surrounding the site of injection. We also show that, contrary to previous reports on lack of PF127 toxicity on cultured cell lines, concentrations of PF127 as low as 0.01% can induce apoptosis of mouse primary cortical neurons in vitro within 24 hours. However, the presence of MWCNTs can avoid PF127-induced apoptosis. These results suggest that PF127-coated MWCNTs do not induce apoptosis of cortical neurons. Moreover, the presence of MWCNTs can reduce PF127 toxicity.
碳纳米管（CNTs）是具有重要潜在生物医学应用价值的纳米器件，如药物和基因递送。目前尚无有效治疗方法的脑部疾病可能是基于碳纳米管疗法的候选对象。关于碳纳米管在脑部的毒性及其分散因素，人们了解甚少。在此我们表明，涂有普朗尼克F127（PF127）表面活性剂的多壁碳纳米管（MWCNTs）可以注射到小鼠大脑皮层中，而不会导致注射部位周围神经元的退化。我们还表明，与之前关于PF127对培养细胞系无毒性的报道相反，低至0.01%的PF127浓度在体外24小时内即可诱导小鼠原代皮层神经元凋亡。然而，多壁碳纳米管的存在可以避免PF127诱导的凋亡。这些结果表明，涂有PF127的多壁碳纳米管不会诱导皮层神经元凋亡。此外，多壁碳纳米管的存在可以降低PF127的毒性。
