Poloxamers (known by the trade name Pluronic®) are triblock copolymer surfactants that contain two polyethylene glycol blocks and one polypropylene glycol block of various sizes. Poloxamers are widely used as nanoparticle dispersants for nanotoxicity studies wherein nanoparticles are sonicated with a dispersant to prepare suspensions. It is known that poloxamers can be degraded during sonication and that reactive oxygen species contribute to the degradation process. However, the possibility that poloxamer degradation products are toxic to mammalian cells has not been well studied. We report here that aqueous solutions of poloxamer 188 (Pluronic® F-68) and poloxamer 407 (Pluronic® F-127) sonicated in the presence or absence of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) can became highly toxic to cultured cells. Moreover, toxicity correlated with the sonolytic degradation of the polymers. These findings suggest that caution should be used in interpreting the results of nanotoxicity studies where the potential sonolytic degradation of dispersants was not controlled.

中文翻译：

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通过超声处理 Pluronic® 分散剂产生有毒降解产物：对纳米毒性测试的影响。

泊洛沙姆（以商品名 Pluronic® 为人所知）是三嵌段共聚物表面活性剂，包含两种不同大小的聚乙二醇嵌段和一种聚丙二醇嵌段。泊洛沙姆广泛用作纳米颗粒分散剂，用于纳米毒性研究，其中纳米颗粒与分散剂一起进行超声处理以制备悬浮液。众所周知，泊洛沙姆可以在超声处理过程中降解，并且活性氧有助于降解过程。然而，泊洛沙姆降解产物对哺乳动物细胞有毒的可能性尚未得到充分研究。我们在此报告称，在多壁碳纳米管 (MWNT) 存在或不存在的情况下进行超声处理的泊洛沙姆 188 (Pluronic® F-68) 和泊洛沙姆 407 (Pluronic® F-127) 的水溶液会对培养细胞产生剧毒。而且，毒性与聚合物的声分解降解相关。这些发现表明，在解释纳米毒性研究的结果时应谨慎，其中分散剂的潜在声分解降解不受控制。