Issue 18, 2018, Issue in Progress

Quantification of C60-induced membrane disruption using a quartz crystal microbalance

Abstract

Direct contact between fullerene C60 nanoparticles (NPs) and cell membranes is one of mechanisms for its cytotoxicity. In this study, the influence of C60 NPs on lipid membranes was investigated. Giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) were used as model cell membranes to observe the membrane disruption after C60 exposure. C60 NPs disrupted the positively charged GUVs but not the negatively charged vesicles, confirming the role of electrostatic forces. To quantify the C60 adhesion on membrane and the induced membrane disruption, a supported lipid bilayer (SLB) and a layer of small unilamellar vesicles (SUVs) were used to cover the sensor of a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). The mass change on the SLB (ΔmSLB) was caused by the C60 adhesion on the membrane, while the mass change on the SUV layer (ΔmSUV) was the combined result of C60 adhesion (mass increase) and SUV disruption (mass loss). The surface area of SLB (ASLB) was much smaller than the surface area of SUV (ASUV), but ΔmSLB was larger than ΔmSUV after C60 deposition, indicating that C60 NPs caused remarkable membrane disruption. Therefore a new method was built to quantify the degree of NP-induced membrane disruption using the values of ΔmSUVmSLB and ASUV/ASLB. In this way, C60 can be compared with other types of NPs to know which one causes more serious membrane disruption. In addition, C60 NPs caused negligible change in the membrane phase, indicating that membrane gelation was not the mechanism of cytotoxicity for C60 NPs. This study provides important information to predict the environmental hazard presented by fullerene NPs and to evaluate the degree of membrane damage caused by different NPs.

Graphical abstract: Quantification of C60-induced membrane disruption using a quartz crystal microbalance

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
27 Dec 2017
Accepted
03 Mar 2018
First published
09 Mar 2018
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2018,8, 9841-9849

Quantification of C60-induced membrane disruption using a quartz crystal microbalance

Y. Zeng, Q. Wang, Q. Zhang and W. Jiang, RSC Adv., 2018, 8, 9841 DOI: 10.1039/C7RA13690K

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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