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Direct imaging of single-walled carbon nanotubes in cells

Nature Nanotechnology volume 2, pages 713–717 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

The development of single-walled carbon nanotubes for various biomedical applications is an area of great promise. However, the contradictory data on the toxic effects of single-walled carbon nanotubes1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 highlight the need for alternative ways to study their uptake and cytotoxic effects in cells. Single-walled carbon nanotubes have been shown to be acutely toxic1,2,3 in a number of types of cells, but the direct observation of cellular uptake of single-walled carbon nanotubes has not been demonstrated previously due to difficulties in discriminating carbon-based nanotubes from carbon-rich cell structures. Here we use transmission electron microscopy and confocal microscopy to image the translocation of single-walled carbon nanotubes into cells in both stained and unstained human cells. The nanotubes were seen to enter the cytoplasm and localize within the cell nucleus, causing cell mortality in a dose-dependent manner.

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Figure 1: Toxicity of SWNTs.
Figure 2: Intracellular distribution of SWNTs in unstained sections.
Figure 3: Cell morphology after exposure to SWNTs.
Figure 4: Localization of intracellular SWNTs within stained cell sections.
Figure 5: HAADF-STEM tomogram of bundles of SWNTs within lysosomes at 4 days in a stained cell section.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support was provided by the IRC in Nanotechnology (Cambridge, UK), the Isaac Newton Trust, EPSRC, FEI Company, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Leverhulme Trust for a Senior Research Fellowship and the Oppenheimer Research Fellowship. The Multiimaging Centre was established with funding from the Welcome Trust. SuperSTEM funding came from EPSRC grant no. EP/D040396/1. We thank J. Bendell, S. Friedichs and Haibo E. for their informative discussions. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to A.E.P.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Nanoscience Centre, University of Cambridge, 11 J. J. Thompson Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 OFF, UK

    Alexandra E. Porter & Mark Welland

  2. UK SuperSTEM, Daresbury Laboratory, Daresbury, WA4 4AD, Cheshire, UK

    Mhairi Gass

  3. Department of Anatomy, Multiimaging Centre, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3DY, UK

    Karin Muller & Jeremy N. Skepper

  4. Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Pembroke Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QZ, UK

    Paul A. Midgley

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  1. Alexandra E. Porter
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  5. Paul A. Midgley
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  6. Mark Welland
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Contributions

All authors conceived and designed the experiments: A.E.P. and P.A.M. performed the TEM and HAADF-STEM experiments and analysis, M.G. performed the aberration corrected STEM and EELS experiments, K.M. performed the cell studies and confocal microscopy, A.E.P. and J.S. performed the EM preparation, A.E.P., K.M. and M.G. analysed the data, and A.E.P. wrote the paper: All authors discussed the results.

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Correspondence to Alexandra E. Porter.

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Porter, A., Gass, M., Muller, K. et al. Direct imaging of single-walled carbon nanotubes in cells. Nature Nanotech 2, 713–717 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2007.347

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