OVERVIEW ON THE MAJOR RESEARCH ACTIVITIES ON CARBON NANOTUBES BEING DONE IN AMERICA, EUROPE AND ASIA - Carbon Nanotubes: From Bench Chemistry to Promising Biomedical Applications - page 295

Table 9.1 Cellular uptake and internalisation of various functionalised CNTs.
Functionalised ( f )-CNTs interacted with adherent mammalian cell monolayers (A549,
HeLa, MOD-K), mammalian cell suspensions (Jurkat), fungal cells ( Cryptococcus
neoformans ), yeast ( Saccharomyces cerevisiae ) and bacteria ( Escherichia coli ) between
1 and 4 hours at 37°C

Type of
CNT

Loading characteristics
(mmol/g)
(amino groups by
quantitative Kaiser
test)

Cell type Observations

1 f -SWNT

f -MWNT

0.45-0.55
0.85-0.95

A549
(20 μg/mL)
Fibroblasts
HeLa
CHO
HEK293

f -CNTs were able
to be internalised
in all cell types.
The nature of the
functional group
on the CNTs did
not inluence their
internalisation.
Up-take of f -CNTs
by fungi and
yeast cells
(which contain
polysaccharides
unable of active
energy-dependent
mechanism [i.e.,
endocytosis])
suggested that
the mechanism
involved in
the CNTs'
internalisation
is different from
endocytosis.

2 f -SWNT

f -MWNT

0.45-0.55
0.85-0.95

A549
(20 μg/mL)
Fibroblasts
HeLa
CHO
HEK293

3 f -SWNT

f -MWNT

0.45-0.55
0.85-0.95

HeLa
(2 μg/mL)
Fibroblasts
CHO
HEK293
Keratinocytes
A549

4 f -MWNT 0.95 (0.65) MOD-K

(5 μg/mL)
Jurkat

5 f -MWNT 0.71 (0.25) Jurkat

(5 μg/mL)

6 f -MWNT Jurkat

(20 μg/mL)

7 f -MWNT C. neoformans

(10 μg/mL)
E. coli
S. cerevisiae

9.3.2 Neuronal Applicaons

Neural cells are known to be electroactive, and the electronic properties of
nanostructures can be tailored to match the charge transport requirements