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Biodistribution of Intravenously Transplanted Mitochondria Conjugated with Graphene Quantum Dots in Diabetic Rats

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Abstract

Mitochondria transplantation has emerged as a successful therapeutic modality to treat several degenerative diseases. However, the biodistribution of transplanted mitochondria has not been well studied. We investigated the ex-vivo systemic biodistribution and therapeutic efficacy of intravenously transplanted graphene quantum dots (GQDs) conjugated to isolated mitochondria (Mt-GQDs) in diabetic rat tissues. The results revealed that Mt-GQDs facilitate the tracking of transplanted mitochondria without affecting their therapeutic efficacy. It is compelling to note that Mt-GQDs and isolated mitochondria show comparable therapeutic efficacies in decreasing blood glucose levels, oxidative stress, inflammatory gene expressions, and restoration of different mitochondrial functions in pancreatic tissues of diabetic rats. In addition, histological section examination under a fluorescence microscope demonstrated the localization of Mt-GQDs in multiple tissues of diabetic rats. In conclusion, this study indicates that Mt-GQDs provide an effective mitochondrial transplantation tracking modality.

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Data Availability

Data would be made available on request.

Abbreviations

GQDs:

Graphene Quantum Dots

Mt-GQDs:

Mitochondria conjugated Graphene Quantum Dots

STZ:

Streptozotocin

NCD:

Normal Chow Diet

TEM:

Transmission electron microscope

FTIR:

Fourier transform infrared

PDI:

Polydispersity Index

PEG:

Polyethylene glycol

GFP:

Green fluorescent protein

TBARS:

Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances

NO:

Nitric oxide

SOD:

Superoxide dismutase

CAT:

Catalase

GSH:

And reduced glutathione

ATP:

Adenosine triphosphate

PGC1-α:

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma coactivator

NF-kB:

Nuclear factor kappa

IL-6:

Interleukin

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Science and Engineering Research Board, SERB, SRG grant (SRG/2019/002105), Govt. of India and Banasthali Vidyapith for providing funds to support the research.

Funding

We would like to thank Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Govt. of India for funding through Start Up Research Grant (SRG), File Number: SRG/2019/002105 granted to Dr. Swati Paliwal.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Banasthali Vidyapith, Tonk, 304022, Rajasthan, India

    Pallavi Mudgal, Jyotsna Pareek & Swati Paliwal

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  1. Pallavi Mudgal
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  2. Jyotsna Pareek
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  3. Swati Paliwal
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Contributions

P.M carried synthesis, characterization of nanoparticles and animal model work, J.P performed biochemical assays. S.P conceptualized the idea and supervised the study. All the authors contributed to writing and reviewing the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Swati Paliwal.

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Ethics Declaration Statement

The approval for animal work was received from the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (BV/IAEC/74/2021) at Banasthali Vidyapith, Rajasthan, India-304022.

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Mudgal, P., Pareek, J. & Paliwal, S. Biodistribution of Intravenously Transplanted Mitochondria Conjugated with Graphene Quantum Dots in Diabetic Rats. J Fluoresc (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10895-023-03480-0

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