Toxicological and biological in vitro and in vivo effects of carbon nanotubes buckypaper

We study the effect of buckypaper (BP) of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes on cancer and primary cell lines in vitro and in vivo on laboratory rats. BP is an innovative material with interesting physical/chemical properties that has possible pharmacological and prosthetic employment. Given that precautions need to taken where carbon nanotubes are injected into human body for drug delivery or as contrast agent carrying entities for MRI or as the material of a new prosthesis generation, we assessed the toxicity of BP carbon nanotubes. BP has structural resemblance to asbestos whose toxicity has been linked to cancer. BP decreased proliferation of human colorectal, breast and leukemic cancer cell line in vitro. However, BP had no effect on the proliferation and viability of normal human arterial smooth muscle cells and human dermal fibroblasts, in vitro. In vivo, BP induced a moderate inflammatory reaction but had no mutagenic effects. The animals after the BP implantation showed an inflammatory reaction followed in the next two weeks by the cicatrisation reaction with the organization and the fibrosis of the scar. These results show a low toxicity of BP both in vitro and in vivo.