Carbon nanotubes could create a risk of mesothelioma, similar to that posed by asbestos, researchers warn today.
These carbon nanotubes are used in manufacturing of strong but lightweight materials such as special paints and sports equipment. They are a form of carbon with a long hollow structure of only a few nanometres (around one-billionth of a metre) by several centimetres long, often similar in size and shape to asbestos fibres.
Professor Marion MacFarlane from the MRC Toxicology Unit in Leicester, UK, and her team investigated their effect on the lungs. They placed either long carbon nanotubes or asbestos fibres directly into the area that separates the lungs and chest wall, called the pleural space, in rodents. This is the area in which mesothelioma usually develops in humans.
Over a number of months the mesothelioma which developed in the animals after asbestos or carbon nanotube exposure was similar to mesothelioma samples from human patients exposed to asbestos.
The process involved long-term inflammation leading over time to inactivation and loss of genes that suppress tumour formation.
The researchers say it was nanotubes that were long, thin and bio-persistent, that posed the risk.
Findings are published today (6 November) in Current Biology.
Professor MacFarlane says: "Unlike previously reported short-term studies, this is the first time the mesothelioma-causing effects of long and thin carbon nanotubes have been monitored in mice over many months.
"Because it is diagnosed in humans when it’s quite advanced, we don’t know much about how or why it forms. This research could help us define key indicators for early detection as well as provide information for developing targeted therapies for this devastating disease."
Chernova, T. et al. Long-Fibre Carbon Nanotubes Replicate Asbestos-Induced Mesothelioma with Disruption of the Tumour Suppressor Gene Cdkn2a (Ink4a/Arf). Current Biology 6 November 2017
Leave a Reply