查看文章

Engineered carbon nanotubes are being developed for a wide range of industrial and medical applications. Because of their unique properties, nanotubes can impose potentially toxic effects, particularly if they have been modified to express functionally reactive chemical groups on their surface. The present study was designed to evaluate whether acid functionalization (AF) enhanced the cardiopulmonary toxicity of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) as well as control carbon black particles. Mice were exposed by oropharyngeal aspiration to 10 or 40 μg of saline-suspended single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), acid-functionalized SWCNTs (AF-SWCNTs), ultrafine carbon black (UFCB), AF-UFCB, or 2 μg LPS. 24 hours later, pulmonary inflammatory responses and cardiac effects were assessed by bronchoalveolar lavage and isolated cardiac perfusion respectively, and compared to saline or LPS …