Multiwalled carbon nanotubes-induced cytotoxic effects on human breast adenocarcinoma cell line

Treatment of the human breast adenocarcinoma cell line, MCF-7, with 0.1 mg/ml of MWCNTs, MWCNTs-COOH, or MWCNTs-OH for 72 hours induced both a decrease in cell proliferation and a reduction of the percentage of cells in S-phase of cell cycle. Moreover, all types of MWCNTs induced an increase in apoptotic cells. Overall, these data indicated that the cytotoxic effects of all types of MWCNTs are mediated both from a decrease in the proliferation rate and from an increase of apoptotic cell death. The biological effects of all types of MWCNTs could be explained with their cellular internalization.