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Updated: Dec 21, 2025

Scalable Syntheses of Graphene Oxide and Reduced Graphene Oxide using Cascade Design Oxidation and Highly Basic Reduction Reactions
Published on: July 3, 2025
Functional disruption in epidermal barrier enhances toxicity and accumulation of graphene oxide
Xuecheng Ding1, Qi Rui2, Dayong Wang3
1College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering in Ministry of Education, Medical School, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China.
Abstract:
In Caenorhabditis elegans, mutation of mlt-7 causes the deficits in epidermal barrier. Using the nematodes with epidermal-specific RNA interference (RNAi) knockdown of mlt-7 as a genetic tool, we found that epidermal-specific RNAi knockdown of mlt-7 resulted in a susceptibility to graphene oxide (GO) toxicity, and enhanced GO accumulation in the body. Epidermal-development related proteins of BLI-1 and IFB-1 acted as downstream targets of MLT-7, and mediated the function of MLT-7 in maintaining the epidermal barrier. Antimicrobial proteins of NLP-30 and CNC-2 also acted as downstream targets of MLT-7 in the regulation of GO toxicity. Epidermal-specific RNAi knockdown of nlp-30 or cnc-2 enhanced GO toxicity and accumulation in bli-1(RNAi) or ifb-1(RNAi) nematodes. Our data highlights the importance of maintaining normal epidermal barrier for nematodes against the GO toxicity.
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