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Amine-modified single-walled carbon nanotubes protect neurons from injury in a rat stroke model

Nature Nanotechnology volume 6, pages 121–125 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Stroke results in the disruption of tissue architecture and is the third leading cause of death in the United States1. Transplanting scaffolds containing stem cells into the injured areas of the brain has been proposed as a treatment strategy2, and carbon nanotubes show promise in this regard, with positive outcomes when used as scaffolds in neural cells3,4 and brain tissues5. Here, we show that pretreating rats with amine-modified single-walled carbon nanotubes can protect neurons and enhance the recovery of behavioural functions in rats with induced stroke. Treated rats showed less tissue damage than controls and took longer to fall from a rotating rod, suggesting better motor functions after injury. Low levels of apoptotic, angiogenic and inflammation markers indicated that amine-modified single-walled carbon nanotubes protected the brains of treated rats from ischaemic injury.

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Figure 1: Pretreatment with a-SWNT-protected animals following ischaemia–reperfusion.
Figure 2: Reduction of apoptosis in a-SWNT-treated animals.
Figure 3: Immunohistochemical analysis of GFAP and Iba-1 expression after MCAO.
Figure 4: Western blot analysis of cerebral cortex lysates after MCAO in PBS- or a-SWNT-treated rats.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the BioGreen21 Program (PJ007079) and the Basic Science Research Programs (KRF-2008-532-E00023 and 2010-0015035).

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  1. Hyun Jung Lee and Jiae Park: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, College of Medicine, Chung Ang University, Seoul, 156-756, Korea

    Hyun Jung Lee, Jiae Park, Do Yeon Lee, Do Hee Kim, Won Bok Lee & Sung Su Kim

  2. School of Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology and Samsung Advanced Institute for Health Sciences and Technology, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, 440-746, Kyunggi-do, Korea

    Ok Ja Yoon, Hyun Woo Kim & Nae-Eung Lee

  3. Renal Division, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Joseph V. Bonventre

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Contributions

H.J.L. and S.S.K. conceived and designed the experiments. H.J.L. and J.P. performed the experiments. H.J.L., O.J.Y., N.-E.L., W.B.L. and S.S.K. analysed the data. H.J.L., J.P., O.J.Y. and H.W.K. contributed to materials/analysis tools. H.J.L., O.J.Y., D.Y.L., D.H.K., N.-E.L., J.V.B. and S.S.K. evaluated the data and co-wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Sung Su Kim.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Lee, H., Park, J., Yoon, O. et al. Amine-modified single-walled carbon nanotubes protect neurons from injury in a rat stroke model. Nature Nanotech 6, 121–125 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2010.281

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