| Summary: | Nanotechnology in the intensive care: Intravascular biocompatibility of carbon nanomaterials - effect of carbon nanotubes on blood platelets. EFFECT OF CARBON NANOTUBES ON BLOOD PLATELETS Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are among the principal materials currently used in biomedical nanotechnologies. CNTs possess superior mechanical and chemical characteristics including enormous tensile strength, elasticity and conductivity. As a result they are very popular and attractive for use in various biomedical applications. Many of these applications may lead ultimately to contact of carbon nanomaterials and blood. Furthermore, CNTs may also be present intravascularly as a result of environmental or occupational exposure. Therefore, the investigation of the intravascular biocompatibility of CNTs is a critical safety issue. We studied the effects of structurally different purified CNT materials from different manufacturers on human platelets and compared their effects to amorphous carbon black nanoparticles (ACB), fullerene C60, fullerenol C60(OH)24 and NIST standard polystyrene nanobeads (PNBs). Using light transmission aggregometry of human platelet rich plasma, we found that various CNTs induce PLT aggregation and this occurs in a concentration dependent manner. In contrast to CNTs, ball-like shaped fullerene...
|
|---|
