Fig. 4. PEGylation of QDs preserve platelets’ ability to aggregate to thrombin. Washed platelets (2.5 × 10⁸ mL⁻¹) were incubated at 37 °C in stirring conditions with either (A) QD-LA (n = 6) and (B) QD-LA-PEG (n = 6), or (D) QD-Pen (n = 8) and (E) QD-Pen-PEG (n = 11) at either 10, 30 or 100 nM for 10 min before being stimulated with 0.1 U mL⁻¹ thrombin (Thr). Aggregation was monitored with representative traces shown. (C) and (F) show change in levels of aggregation following the addition of thrombin. Data is shown as mean ± SD. Statistical significance was calculated using a two-way ANOVA followed by a Sidak's multiple comparison post hoc test. *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001.