Research Progress on Toxicity of Cadmium-Containing Quantum Dots

The cadmium-containing quantum dot is a typical quantum dot, which has been widely studied in recent years. People began to pay attention to its safety problem. The key constraint on the application and development of cadmium-containing quantum dots in biological imaging and biomedicine is its potential toxicity. Therefore, the study of its toxic effects is of great significance. At present, the in vitro toxicity studies on cadmiumcontaining quantum dots are mainly concentrated in cell lines such as human hepatoma cells HepG2, neurosecretory cells PC12, and in vitro culture experiments of zebrafish embryos. In vivo toxicity studies include animal experiments such as mice. These studies confirmed that quantum dots are cytotoxic to cell lines such as HepG2 and to animals such as mice and mussels. Researchers generally believe that quantum dots cause toxic effect by releasing heavy metals in their composition, inducing organisms to produce reactive oxygen free radicals, and then triggering apoptosis or autophagy, but the specific toxic mechanism of quantum dots is not completely clear. In this paper, the progress of in vivo and in vitro toxicity studies of cadmium-containing quantum dots was reviewed, including on hepatic and renal cells, nerve cells, blood and immune cells, as well as terrestrial, aquatic animals and the like. It aims to better and more comprehensively evaluate the toxicity of cadmium-containing quantum dots, and provide direction for the future toxic mechanism of quantum dots to promote the development and application of cadmiumcontaining quantum dots in bioimaging and biomedicine.

CSTR: 32200.14.cjcb.2020.01.0017