Biological Uptake, Distribution and Depuration of Radio-labeled Graphene in Adult Zebrafish: Effects of Graphene Size and Natural Organic Matter

Published

February 27, 2017

Author(s)

Kun Lu, Shipeng Dong, Elijah Petersen, Xiaofeng Chang, Peng Wang, Sijie Lin, Liang Mao

Abstract

The exciting commercial application potential of graphene materials may inevitably lead to their increasing environmental exposure and risk. This study focused on using carbon-14 labeled few-layer graphene (FLG) to determine whether the size of graphene plays a role in its uptake, depuration and distribution in adult zebrafish. After 48 h exposure to larger FLG (L-FLG) at 250 ug/L, the amount of graphene in the organism was close to 48 mg/kg fish dry mass, which was more than 170-fold greater than the body burden of those exposed to the same concentration of smaller FLG (S-FLG). The amount of uptake for both L-FLG and S-FLG increased by a factor of 2.5 and 16, respectively, when natural organic matter (NOM) was added in the exposure suspension. While the L-FLG mainly accumulated in the gut of adult zebrafish, the S-FLG was found in both the gut and liver after exposure with or without NOM. Strikingly, the S-FLG was able to pass through the intestinal wall and enter the intestinal epithelial cells and blood. The presence of NOM magnified the quantity of S-FLG in these cells. Exposure to L-FLG or S-FLG also had a significantly different impact on the intestinal microbial community structure.

Citation

Environmental Science and Technology

Pub Type

Journals

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Citation

Lu, K. , Dong, S. , Petersen, E. , Chang, X. , Wang, P. , Lin, S. and Mao, L. (2017), Biological Uptake, Distribution and Depuration of Radio-labeled Graphene in Adult Zebrafish: Effects of Graphene Size and Natural Organic Matter, Environmental Science and Technology, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=921642 (Accessed March 19, 2025)