Characteristic synergistic cytotoxic effects toward cells in graphene oxide dressing with cadmium and copper ions

Yiyang Dong; Yulin Chang; Haidi Gao; Victoria Arantza León Anchustegui; Qiang Yu; Haifang Wang; Jia-Hui Liu; Shihui Wang

doi:10.1039/c9tx00146h

Characteristic synergistic cytotoxic effects toward cells in graphene oxide dressing with cadmium and copper ions

Toxicol Res (Camb). 2019 Sep 16;8(6):908-917. doi: 10.1039/c9tx00146h. eCollection 2019 Nov 1.

Authors

Yiyang Dong¹, Yulin Chang¹, Haidi Gao¹, Victoria Arantza León Anchustegui¹, Qiang Yu¹, Haifang Wang², Jia-Hui Liu^{1

3}, Shihui Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Life Science and Technology , Beijing University of Chemical Technology , Beijing 100029 , China . Email: wangshihui@mail.buct.edu.cn ; Email: jhliu@mail.buct.edu.cn ; ; Tel: +86-10-64446260.
² Institute of Nanochemistry and Nanobiology , Shanghai University , Shanghai 200444 , China.
³ Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences , College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering , Peking University , Beijing 100871 , China.

Abstract

The increasing applications of graphene oxide (GO) in bio-medicine, environment and other fields enhance the exposure possibility of human beings to GO. Studies have been performed to address the in vitro toxicity of GO; however, little information on the in vivo biological consequence of GO with other common disasters is available, especially when cells are co-exposed to GO and common metal ions. To explore the influence and possible mechanisms of such co-exposure scenarios, a series of tests of cell viability, membrane integrity, reactive oxygen species (ROS), cell morphology, and Cd²⁺ distribution, were conducted. The results showed that the synergistic toxic mechanisms of GO and Cd²⁺, initiated from the adhesion of GO on HeLa cells, and followed by the recruitment of Cd²⁺ ions around the cell membrane, impaired the membrane integrity, morphology and adhesion capability, and triggered cell toxicity. The synergistic toxic mechanism of GO and Cu²⁺ mainly correlated to ROS, while no obvious relationship with membrane integrity was observed. The findings are envisaged to facilitate the application of GO in biology and related fields.