Expression data from Caenorhabditis elegans exposed to single-walled carbon nanotubes

The potential environmental risk of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is evaluated using Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) as an ecotoxicological animal model. Highly soluble amide-modified SWCNTs (a-SWCNTs) are used in the present study so that the dose-response impact of SWCNTs could be studied. mechanisms. a-SWCNTs are efficiently taken up by worms during feeding and cause significant toxicity in worms, including retarded growth, shortened lifespan and defective embryogenesis. Genome-wide gene expression analysis is performed to investigate the toxic molecular We examined the effect of different concentrations of a-SWCNTs (0, 100, 250 and 500 μg/mL) on the growth of C. elegans. We measured the body length of worms reaching the L4 stage after a-SWCNT exposure for 48 hr at 22°C. Compared to the untreated worms, we found that the average length of worms exposed to a-SWCNTs (500 μg mL-1) was significantly shorter than the untreated groups. In addition, the dose of a-SWCNTs also caused retarded growth, reduced lifespan and defective embryogenesis in worms. Genome-wide gene expression analysis using an Affymetrix GeneChip was performed to further investigate the molecular basis of these defects.