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Biodistribution of multi-walled carbon nanotubes functionalized by hydroxyl terminated poly(ethylene glycol) in mice

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Abstract

Poly(ethylene glycol) functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNTs-PEG) have attracted great research interest due to their good biocompatibility and wide applications in biomedical areas, such as drug delivery, bioimaging and photothermal therapy. The biodistribution studies are fundamental and essential to the biomedical applications and toxicological evaluations of CNTs-PEG, while isotopic labeling is the most adopted method for the quantitation of CNTs in vivo. Herein, we studied the biodistribution of hydroxyl terminated CNTs-PEG (CNTs-PEG-OH) in mice using 125I-labeling technique. The blood concentrations and accumulation levels of CNTs-PEG-OH in different organs were quantitatively analyzed by detecting the radioactivity of 125I labeled on CNTs-PEG-OH. The results indicated that CNTs-PEG-OH were quickly cleared from blood circulation and distributed to the entire body, except brain. CNTs-PEG-OH were mainly sequestrated by liver after intravenous injection. The hepatic accumulation decreased along with time elapse. Prolonging the PEG chains led to the decrease of hepatic accumulation, while the biodistribution pattern was similar. The implications to the biomedical applications and safety evaluations of CNTs-PEG are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge financial support from the China Ministry of Science and Technology (973 Project No. 2011CB933402), the China Natural Science Foundation (Nos. 21071094 and 20871010), Shanghai Municipal Education Committee (11ZZ82) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Southwest University for Nationalities (No. 11NZYBS06)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Environment Protection Engineering, Southwest University for Nationalities, Chengdu, 610041, China

    Sheng-Tao Yang

  2. Institute of Nanochemistry and Nanobiology, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China

    Sheng-Tao Yang, Yan-Wen Wang, Jia-Hui Liu & Haifang Wang

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  1. Sheng-Tao Yang
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  2. Yan-Wen Wang
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  3. Jia-Hui Liu
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  4. Haifang Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Haifang Wang.

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10967_2012_1901_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Supplementary material 1 (PDF 77 kb). TEM image of MWCNTs-PEG20000-OH; (2) the biodistribution of 125I-MWCNT-PEG4000-OH and Na125I in mice after intravenous injection

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Yang, ST., Wang, YW., Liu, JH. et al. Biodistribution of multi-walled carbon nanotubes functionalized by hydroxyl terminated poly(ethylene glycol) in mice. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 295, 1181–1186 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-012-1901-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-012-1901-0

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