Length effects on the dynamic process of cellular uptake and exocytosis of single-walled carbon nanotubes in murine macrophage cells

Cellular uptake and exocytosis of SWCNTs are fundamental processes determining their intracellular concentration and effects. Despite the great potential of acid-oxidized SWCNTs in biomedical field, understanding of the influencing factors on these processes needs to be deepened. Here, we quantitati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2017-05, Vol.7 (1), p.1518-13, Article 1518
Main Authors: Cui, Xuejing, Wan, Bin, Yang, Yu, Ren, Xiaomin, Guo, Liang-Hong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
14/19
14/34
631/80
704/172
82/29
Animals
Caveolae
Cell culture
Cell Line
Cell Survival
Clathrin
Endocytosis
Exocytosis
Humanities and Social Sciences
Internalization
Intracellular
Macrophages
Macrophages - metabolism
Macrophages - ultrastructure
Mice
multidisciplinary
Nanotubes
Nanotubes, Carbon - ultrastructure
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Toxicity
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Summary:Cellular uptake and exocytosis of SWCNTs are fundamental processes determining their intracellular concentration and effects. Despite the great potential of acid-oxidized SWCNTs in biomedical field, understanding of the influencing factors on these processes needs to be deepened. Here, we quantitatively investigated uptake and exocytosis of SWCNTs in three lengths-630 (±171) nm (L-SWCNTs), 390 (±50) nm (M-SWCNTs), and 195 (±63) nm (S-MWCNTs) in macrophages. The results showed that the cellular accumulation of SWCNTs was a length-independent process and non-monotonic in time, with the most SWCNTs (3950 fg/cell) accumulated at 8 h and then intracellular SWCNTs dropped obviously with time. The uptake rate of SWCNTs decreased with increasing concentration, suggesting that intracellular SWCNTs accumulation is a saturable process. After refreshing culture medium, we found increasing SWCNTs in supernatant and decreasing intracellular SWCNTs over time, confirming the exocytosis occurred. Selective inhibition of endocytosis pathways showed that the internalization of SWCNTs involves several pathways, in the order of macropinocytosis> caveolae-mediated endocytosis> clathrin-dependent endocytosis. Intriguingly, clathrin-mediated endocytosis is relatively important for internalizing shorter SWCNTs. The dynamic processes of SWCNTs uptake and exocytosis and the mechanisms revealed by this study may render a better understanding on SWCNT toxicity and facilitate the design of CNT products with mitigated toxicity and desired functions.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-01746-9