Generally, GFNs may exert different degrees of toxicity in animals or cell models by following with different administration routes and penetrating through the  physiological barriers, subsequently being distributed in tissues or located in cells, eventually being excreted out of the bodies. This review collects studies on the toxic effects of GFNs in several organs and cell -models. We also point out that various factors determine the toxicity of GFNs including the lateral size, surface structure, functionalization, charge, impurities, aggregations, and corona effect ect.Several typical mechanisms underlying GFN toxicity have been revealed, for instance, physical destruction, oxidative stress, DNA damage, inflammatory response, apoptosis, autophagy, and necrosis. In these kind of  mechanisms, (toll-like receptors-) TLR-, transforming growth factor β- (TGF-β-) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) dependent-pathways are involved in the signalling pathway network, and oxidative- stress plays a crucial role in these pathways”

“Graphene oxide  has wide engineering applications in various areas, including electronics, energy storage, pharmaceuticals, nanomedicine, environmental remediation and biotechnology, because of its unique physico-chemical properties. In the present  work , the risk-related information of GO was evaluated to examine the potential ecological and health risks of developmental toxicity. Although the overall developmental toxicity of GO has been well characterized in zebrafish, however, its release effect at a certain concentration of living organisms with specific cardio vascular defects remains widely  elusive. Therefore, this study was conducted to further evaluate the toxicity of GO on embryonic development and cardio vascular defects in zebrafish embryos used as an in-vivo animal model. As a result, the presence of GO at a small concentration (0.1-0.3 mg/mL) does not affect the embryonic development.  GO at higher concentrations (0.4-1 mg/mL) induces significant embryonic mortality, increase the  heart- beat, delayed hatching, cardiotoxicity, cardiovascular defects, retardation of cardiac looping, increased apoptosis and decreased hemoglobinization”.

With Best Regards,
Mark Wilson
Journal Coordinator
American Journal of Phytomedicine and Clinical Therapeutics