Suzhou Key Laboratory of Nanobiomedicine, Division of Nanobiomedicine & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 398 Ruoshui Road, Suzhou 215123, China; School for Radiological & Interdisciplinary Sciences, Medicine College of Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China.
Suzhou Key Laboratory of Nanobiomedicine, Division of Nanobiomedicine & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 398 Ruoshui Road, Suzhou 215123, China.
Biomaterials. 2014 Jun;35(19):5041-8. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2014.03.021. Epub 2014 Mar 28.
Graphene quantum dots (GQD) generate intrinsic fluorescence, and improves aqueous stability of graphene oxide (GO) while maintaining wide chemical adaptability and high adsorption capacity. Despite GO's remarkable advantages in bio-imaging, bio-sensing and other biomedical applications, its biosafety issues are still unclear. Here we report a detailed and systematic study on the in vitro and in vivo toxicity of GQD. The GQD sample was prepared through a facile oxidation approach and fully characterized by means of AFM, TEM, FTIR, XPS and elemental analysis. In vitro experiments showed that GQD exhibits very low cytotoxicity owing to its ultra-small size and high oxygen content. Then, the in vivo biodistribution experiment of GQD revealed no material accumulation in main organs of mice and fast clearance of GQD through kidney. In order to mimic clinic drug administration, mice were injected with GQD and GO (as comparison) multiple times for in vivo toxicity tests. We found that GQD showed no obvious influence on mice owing to its small size, while GO appeared toxic, even caused death to mice due to GO aggregation inside mice. In brief, GQD possesses no obvious in vitro and in vivo toxicity, even under multi-dosing situation.
石墨烯量子点（GQD）具有本征荧光性，提高了氧化石墨烯（GO）的水稳定性，同时保持了广泛的化学适应性和高吸附能力。尽管 GO 在生物成像、生物传感和其他生物医学应用中具有显著优势，但它的生物安全性问题仍不清楚。在这里，我们报告了关于 GQD 的体外和体内毒性的详细和系统的研究。GQD 样品通过简便的氧化方法制备，并通过 AFM、TEM、FTIR、XPS 和元素分析进行了全面的表征。体外实验表明，由于其超小尺寸和高氧含量，GQD 表现出非常低的细胞毒性。然后，GQD 的体内生物分布实验表明，在小鼠的主要器官中没有材料积累，并且 GQD 通过肾脏快速清除。为了模拟临床药物给药，用 GQD 和 GO（作为比较）多次注射小鼠进行体内毒性试验。我们发现，由于其尺寸小，GQD 对小鼠没有明显影响，而 GO 则表现出毒性，甚至由于 GO 在小鼠体内聚集而导致小鼠死亡。总之，即使在多次给药的情况下，GQD 也没有明显的体外和体内毒性。
