Biological effects of cellulose nanofibrils in a lung epithelial cell line

• Autor(a) principal: Teixeira, Sara Antunes de Almeida
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/89710
• topic: cellulose nanofibrils; A549 cells; biological effects; in vitro toxicity; safety assessment; nanotechnology; Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia Médica

Cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) are plant-derived nanomaterials, showing advantageous physicochemical properties, renewable nature and low cost. CNFs have great potential in several industries, including forest, food, pharmaceutical and biomedicine, as drug-delivery systems or for tissue repair and regeneration. The increased production and application of CNFs leads to greater exposure of both workers and consumers, being extremely important to evaluate possible negative outcomes for human health. Due to their similarities with other fibers, such as carbon nanotubes, they may reveal adverse effects, such as carcinogenesis. The objective of this work was to evaluate the biosafety of CNFs produced by different pre-treatments - TEMPO-mediated oxidation and enzymatic hydrolysis - from a bleached industrial Eucalyptus globulus kraft pulp. For this purpose, the internalization, cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of these CNFs was analysed through different parameters: intracellular localization, cell viability and chromosome damage. Human lung epithelial cells (A549) were used, since the most frequent route of exposure is inhalation of CNFs, especially in occupational context