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Repeated administrations of carbon nanotubes in male mice cause reversible testis damage without affecting fertility

Nature Nanotechnology volume 5, pages 683–689 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Soluble carbon nanotubes show promise as materials for in vivo delivery and imaging applications. Several reports have described the in vivo toxicity of carbon nanotubes, but their effects on male reproduction have not been examined. Here, we show that repeated intravenous injections of water-soluble multiwalled carbon nanotubes into male mice can cause reversible testis damage without affecting fertility. Nanotubes accumulated in the testes, generated oxidative stress and decreased the thickness of the seminiferous epithelium in the testis at day 15, but the damage was repaired at 60 and 90 days. The quantity, quality and integrity of the sperm and the levels of three major sex hormones were not significantly affected throughout the 90-day period. The fertility of treated male mice was unaffected; the pregnancy rate and delivery success of female mice that mated with the treated male mice did not differ from those that mated with untreated male mice.

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Figure 1: Treatment of BALB/c mice with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNT).
Figure 2: Pathologic and morphometric analysis of testes treated with MWCNTs.
Figure 3: MDA levels in testes homogenate and sex hormone levels in blood.
Figure 4: Sperm concentration, motility, morphology and acrosome integrity.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Q. Jia, J. Han, Q. Wang, Y. Liu, T. Powell, D. Broughton, A. L. Vavere and L. Mann for technical assistance, and B. Ma for stimulating discussions. This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program 2010CB933504), the National Cancer Institute (P30CA027165), the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities and St Jude Children's Research Hospital.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Shandong University, Jinan, 250012, China

    Yuhong Bai, Yi Zhang & Jingping Zhang

  2. Department of Chemical Biology and Therapeutics, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, 38105, Tennessee, USA

    Yi Zhang, Qingxin Mu & Bing Yan

  3. Key Laboratory for Colloid and Interface Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, China

    Qingxin Mu & Bing Yan

  4. Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan, 250062, China

    Weidong Zhang

  5. Department of Radiological Sciences, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, 38105, Tennessee, USA

    Elizabeth R. Butch & Scott E. Snyder

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Contributions

B.Y. and Y.B. conceived and designed the experiments. Y.B., Y.Z., J.Z., Q.M., W.Z., E.R.B. and S.E.S. performed the experiments. B.Y., Y.B. and Y.Z. analysed the data. Y.B., Q.M., W.Z. and S.E.S. contributed materials and analysis tools. B.Y. and Y.B. co-wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Bing Yan.

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Bai, Y., Zhang, Y., Zhang, J. et al. Repeated administrations of carbon nanotubes in male mice cause reversible testis damage without affecting fertility. Nature Nanotech 5, 683–689 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2010.153

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