Biodistribution and clearance of instilled carbon nanotubes in rat lung

Dan Elgrabli (1) , Magali Floriani (2) , Steve Abella-Gallart (1) , Laurent Meunier (1) , Christelle Gamez (1) , Patrice Delalain (1) , Françoise Rogerieux (1) , Jorge Boczkowski (3, 4) , Ghislaine Lacroix (1)

1 INERIS - Institut National de l'Environnement Industriel et des Risques
2 IRSN - Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire
3 Physiopathologie et Epidemiologie de l'Insuffisance Respiratoire
4 Hôpital Bichat / Centre d'Investigation Clinique 007

Background: Constituted only by carbon atoms, CNT are hydrophobic and hardly detectable in biological tissues. These properties make biokinetics and toxicology studies more complex. Methods: We propose here a method to investigate the biopersistence of CNT in organism, based on detection of nickel, a metal present in the MWCNT we investigated. Results and conclusion: Our results in rats that received MWCNT by intratracheal instillation, reveal that MWCNT can be eliminated and do not significantly cross the pulmonary barrier but are still present in lungs 6 months after a unique instillation. MWCNT structure was also showed to be chemically modified and cleaved in the lung. These results provide the first data of CNT biopersistence and clearance at 6 months after respiratory administration

Domains: Toxicology; Environmental Sciences

Dan Elgrabli, Magali Floriani, Steve Abella-Gallart, Laurent Meunier, Christelle Gamez, et al.. Biodistribution and clearance of instilled carbon nanotubes in rat lung. Particle and Fibre Toxicology, 2008, 5 (20), pp.NC. ⟨10.1186/1743-8977-5-20⟩. ⟨ineris-00963147⟩