Fig. 4.

Histological analysis of CAM assay experiments. Vessel density expressed as numbers of vessels per area for the three regions interface, middle and surface (A-C, see Materials and Methods for definition of regions); vessel area per area (D-F); cell density (G-I); tissue integration (J) and collagen intensity (K). As not all data sets were normally distributed, non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test was performed. Significance was considered for p-values <0.05 and indicated as follows: <0.05 (*), <0.01 (**), <0.001 (***). Note: Group PLGA/aCaP/CuO (10 %) was not included in the statistical analysis, because data were based on only one egg (all other embryos exposed to this type of nanocomposite died). Pairwise comparison in contingency table revealed p < 0.001 for PLGA/aCaP versus PLGA/aCaP/CuO (5 %) and PLGA/CuTCP versus PLGA/aCaP/CuO (5 %); and p < 0.01 for PLGA/aCaP/CuO (1 %) versus PLGA/aCaP/CuO (5 %). The other pairwise comparisons were not significant. Representative reference images for collagen intensity are given in Supporting Information SI Fig. 1.