title: Single-walled carbon nanotube interactions with HeLa cells.
abstract: This work concerns exposing cultured human epithelial-like HeLa cells to single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) dispersed in cell culture media supplemented with serum. First, the as-received CoMoCAT SWNT-containing powder was characterized using scanning electron microscopy and thermal gravimetric analyses. Characterizations of the purified dispersions, termed DM-SWNTs, involved atomic force microscopy, inductively coupled plasma - mass spectrometry, and absorption and Raman spectroscopies. Confocal microRaman spectroscopy was used to demonstrate that DM-SWNTs were taken up by HeLa cells in a time- and temperature-dependent fashion. Transmission electron microscopy revealed SWNT-like material in intracellular vacuoles. The morphologies and growth rates of HeLa cells exposed to DM-SWNTs were statistically similar to control cells over the course of 4 d. Finally, flow cytometry was used to show that the fluorescence from MitoSOXtrade mark Red, a selective indicator of superoxide in mitochondria, was statistically similar in both control cells and cells incubated in DM-SWNTs. The combined results indicate that under our sample preparation protocols and assay conditions, CoMoCAT DM-SWNT dispersions are not inherently cytotoxic to HeLa cells. We conclude with recommendations for improving the accuracy and comparability of carbon nanotube (CNT) cytotoxicity reports.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 75080, USA. pantano@utdallas.edu.
authors.forename: Hadi N
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Yehia
authors.forename: Rockford K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Draper
authors.forename: Carole
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mikoryak
authors.forename: Erin Kate
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: Pooja
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bajaj
authors.forename: Inga H
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Musselman
authors.forename: Meredith C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Daigrepont
authors.forename: Gregg R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Dieckmann
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pantano