Fig. 3.

Morphological characterization of HepG2 cells. (A) Four groups of cells, control and those treated with three different concentrations of AgNP (0.03, 0.12, and 0.24 mg/l) were visualized by inverted microscope at the end of final exposure (magnification  32). (B) Two flasks of HepG2 cells (one control and one test) were prepared. The test cells were treated with 1 mg/l of AgNP for 12 h. Both the untreated and the treated cells were trypsinized, washed with PBS and processed for TEM. Despite apparently intact membranes, the cytoplasmic features and organelles of the treated cells including mitochondria are remarkably different from those of control cells. (Scale marker indicates 2500 nm,  3000). Clusters of AgNP are present both inside and outside of the cell (white arrows).