Posted: Jan 02, 2007 |
Easing concerns about the toxicity of diamond nanoparticles |
(Nanowerk News) New research has brightened the prospects for using nanodiamonds as drug carriers, implant coatings, nanorobots and other medical applications that take advantage of diamond nanoparticles' attractive properties.
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The research was published in the Dec. 28, 2006 issue of The Journal of Physical Chemistry B (" Are Diamond Nanoparticles Cytotoxic?").
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Liming Dai (University of Dayton), Saber M. Hussain (Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) and colleagues, including PhD student Amanda Schrand, explain that advances in technology have made a new generation of nanodiamonds available. Although diamond in bulk form is inert and biocompatible, nano-materials often behave differently than their bulk counterparts. That led to concern that diamond nanoparticles might have toxic effects on cells.
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"We have for the first time assessed the cytotoxicity of nanodiamonds ranging in size from 2 to 10 nm," the researchers state, adding that nanodiamonds were not toxic to a variety of different cell types.
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"These results suggest that nanodiamonds could be ideal for many biological applications in a diverse range of cell types," they add.
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