Graphene oxide-silver nanoparticle nanocomposites induces apoptosis in caprine fetal fibroblast cells via induction of oxidative stress

Abstract Background: Graphene oxide (GO) has drawn much attention as excellent platform to which silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) can be anchored for the production of biomedical nanocomposites. Yet, the potential toxicity of GO-AgNPs nanocomposites to animal and human is complex to evaluate and remains largely unknown. Results: Our data indicated that GO-AgNPs caused cytotoxicity in dose-dependent manner. GO-AgNPs induced significant cytotoxicity by the loss of cell viability, production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), cell cycle arrest, increasing leakage of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and level of Malondialdehyde (MDA), increasing expression of pro-apoptotic genes and decreasing expression of anti-apoptotic genes. Conclusions: Taken together, our study demonstrated that GO-AgNPs potentially induce oxidative damage to DNA, which result in toxicity and cell apoptosis in caprine fetal fibroblast cell due to an increased generation of ROS. It strongly suggests that applications of GO-AgNPs nanocomposite in animal must be further evaluated.