Effects of multi-walled carbon nanotubes on gene and microRNA expression in human hepatocarcinoma HepG2 cells

The usage of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) has increased exponentially in the past years, but, potential toxicity mechanisms are not clear. We studied the transcriptomic alterations induced by one multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) and its -OH and -COOH functionalized derivatives in human HepG2 cells. We showed that all three MWCNT treatments induced alterations in stress-related signaling pathways, inflammation-related signaling pathways, cholesterol synthesis pathways, proliferation-related pathways, senescence-related pathways and cancer-related pathways. In stress-related pathways, the acute phase response was induced in all three MWCNTs and all doses treated and ranked high. Other stress-related pathways were also related to the oxidative-induced signaling pathways, such as NRF-2 mediated oxidative stress response, hepatic fibrosis/Stella cell activation, iNOS signaling, and Hif1α signaling. Many inflammation-related pathways were altered, such as IL-8, IL-6, TNFR1, TNFR2, and NF-κB signaling pathways. These results were consistent with our previous results with exposures to the same three multi-walled carbon nanotubes in human lung BEAS-2B and also with results in mice and rats. From the microRNA target filter analysis, TXNIP & miR-128-3p interaction was present in all three MWCNT treatments, and maybe important for the induction of oxidative stress. CXCL-8 & miR-146-5p and Wee1 & miR-128-3p were only present in the cells treated with the parent and the OH-functionalized MWCNTs. These mRNA-miRNA interactions were involved in oxidative stress, inflammation, cell cycle, cholesterol biosynthesis and cancer related pathways. Target filter analysis also showed altered liver hyperplasia/hyperproliferation and hepatic cancer pathways. In short, target filter analysis complemented the transcriptomic analysis and pointed to specific gene/microRNA interactions that can help inform mechanism of action. Moreover, our study showed that the signaling pathways altered in HepG2 cells correlated well with the toxicity and carcinogenicity observed in vivo, indicating that HepG2 may be a good in vitro predictive model for MWCNT toxicity studies.