Figure 5.
Imaging and characterization of effects of Ag NPs on morphology, viability, and membrane integrity of the tumor cells. Optical images of cells cultured on the coverslips in the medium with (A) 0 and (B) 0.46 nM Ag NPs for 72 h, show drastic effects of Ag NPs on the cellular morphologies.
(C) Selected images of single cells from (A) and (B) show (a) normal and (b) abnormal cells with undivided giant nuclei and (c-f) multiple nuclei.
(D) Fluorescence images of cells in (C), which are characterized using mitotracker-orange assay, show that the cells are viable.
(E) Absorbance of reduced MTS by intracellular dehydrogenase at λmax of 490 nm, for the cells cultured in the flasks containing the medium with 0, 0.23 and 0.46 nM Ag NPs for 72 h and assayed by MTS assay, shows that the cells are alive
(F) Plot of the percentage of viable cells, cultured in the flasks containing the medium with 0, 0.23 and 0.46 nM Ag NPs, and characterized using trypan blue assay, show that the majority of cells (> 94%) incubated with Ag NPs are alive and their membranes are intact.
The scale bar in (A) and (B) = 50 μm, (C) and (D) = 20 μm