Biocompatibility, Toxicity, and Immunological Effects of Functionalized Carbon Nanostructures

Due to the rising attention of researchers in the related biomedical field for functionalized carbon nanostructures (carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibers, graphene, and so on) being sole or in the composite form with various supplementary materials (metal nanoparticles, polymers, ceramics, etc.), recent studies have especially focused on biocompatibility, toxicological, and immunological characterization of them. Regarding the biosafety assessment, inhalation, oral, and blood administration paths in test animals, cell viability and morphology observation characterizations, hemolytic assays, etc. could be enumerated as some of the valid tests in the literature. Hence, this book chapter is divided into five main sections commencing with the overview of carbon nanostructure-induced toxicities depicted in simple illustrations followed by the biosafety characterization categories relevant to the test environment (that is, in vitro and in vivo), the recommended strategies to avoid or mitigate the toxicities associated with carbon nanostructures, and ending with future prospects. Considering the possible benefits of carbon nanostructures in the biomedical field (such as therapeutics, diagnostics, bioimaging, tissue engineering, and so on) and other related areas they deserve to be thoroughly and correctly characterized in terms of biosafety. For the toxicological assays to be accurate and valid, the researchers must fully characterize the properties of carbon nanostructures beforehand.