TY - JOUR
T1 - Disruption of model cell membranes by carbon nanotubes
AU - Corredor, Charlie
AU - Hou, Wen Che
AU - Klein, Steven A.
AU - Moghadam, Babak Y.
AU - Goryll, Michael
AU - Doudrick, Kyle
AU - Westerhoff, Paul
AU - Posner, Jonathan D.
N1 - Funding Information:
The United States Department of Energy ( DE-FG02-08ER64613 ), National Science Foundation ( CBET-0932885 ), NIH Grand Opportunities (RC2) program through NANO-GO NIEHS grant DE-FG02-08ER64613 , Semiconductor Research Corporation ( ERC-425.025 ), National Academies Ford Predoctoral Graduate Fellowship, National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, and More Graduate Education at Mountain State Alliance provided financial support. Also, the authors want to thank Prof. Somenath Mitra at the Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science at the New Jersey Institute of Technology for providing the MWCNTs, Jeffrey L. Moran for the valuable discussions, and William Walker for preparing graphics.
PY - 2013/8
Y1 - 2013/8
N2 - Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have one of the highest production volumes among carbonaceous engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) worldwide and are have potential uses in applications including biomedicine, nanocomposites, and energy conversion. However, CNTs possible widespread usage and associated likelihood for biological exposures have driven concerns regarding their nanotoxicity and ecological impact. In this work, we probe the responses of planar suspended lipid bilayer membranes, used as model cell membranes, to functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), CdSe/ZnS quantum dots, and a control organic compound, melittin, using an electrophysiological measurement platform. The electrophysiological measurements show that MWCNTs in a concentration range of 1.6-12 ppm disrupt lipid membranes by inducing significant transmembrane current fluxes, which suggest that MWCNTs insert and traverse the lipid bilayer membrane, forming transmembrane carbon nanotubes channels that allow the transport of ions. This paper demonstrates a direct measurement of ion migration across lipid bilayers induced by CNTs. Electrophysiological measurements can provide unique insights into the lipid bilayer-ENPs interactions and have the potential to serve as a preliminary screening tool for nanotoxicity.
AB - Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have one of the highest production volumes among carbonaceous engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) worldwide and are have potential uses in applications including biomedicine, nanocomposites, and energy conversion. However, CNTs possible widespread usage and associated likelihood for biological exposures have driven concerns regarding their nanotoxicity and ecological impact. In this work, we probe the responses of planar suspended lipid bilayer membranes, used as model cell membranes, to functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), CdSe/ZnS quantum dots, and a control organic compound, melittin, using an electrophysiological measurement platform. The electrophysiological measurements show that MWCNTs in a concentration range of 1.6-12 ppm disrupt lipid membranes by inducing significant transmembrane current fluxes, which suggest that MWCNTs insert and traverse the lipid bilayer membrane, forming transmembrane carbon nanotubes channels that allow the transport of ions. This paper demonstrates a direct measurement of ion migration across lipid bilayers induced by CNTs. Electrophysiological measurements can provide unique insights into the lipid bilayer-ENPs interactions and have the potential to serve as a preliminary screening tool for nanotoxicity.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.carbon.2013.03.057
DO - 10.1016/j.carbon.2013.03.057
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84878538552
SN - 0008-6223
VL - 60
SP - 67
EP - 75
JO - Carbon
JF - Carbon
ER -