Joined: 16 Mar 2004 |Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 1:33 pm Post
subject: Carbon nanotubes not toxic for mice |A new pilot study
has found that single-walled carbon nanotubes are not toxic to
mice, even after a period of four months. The result means that
SWNTs might not be toxic to humans either and could one day be
used for applications such as imaging and therapy. However, more
detailed work needs to be done before this can be confirmed with
any certainty. SWNTs could be used in a host of biomedical
applications, including drug delivery, imaging and destroying
tumours. But scientists still do not know whether the
nanomaterials are toxic and to what extent. A new study led by
Sanjiv Gambhir and colleagues at Stanford University in
California has shown that SWNTs injected into the bloodstream of
mice are not toxic to the animals. The researchers obtained
their results by comparing two groups of five mice, one group
that had been administered with between 50 and 150mg of SWNTs,
and one that had not. They monitored