Figure 7.

DMF treatment-induced apoptosis in LAMP1-SPION loaded cells. (A) The INS-1 cells were treated with DMF for 20 min at 20 Hz and stained with the nuclear marker Hoechst (purple), the apoptosis marker annexin V (green), and 7-AAD (blue). Scale bars = 5 μm. After 6 h of incubation (5% CO₂, 37 °C), early (B) and late (C) stage apoptosis were detected by percentage of number of annexin V and 7-AAD positive cells to the number of Hoechst stained cells. Note that DMF caused significant increase in apoptosis in LAMP1-SPION-loaded cells compared to when loading was done using conventional SPIONs. Each treatment was conducted with 28 cells. *p < 0.05. (D) Decrease of the rate of cell growth in LAMP1-SPION loaded INS-1 cells. Cells were treated with DMF (20 Hz, 20 min) once/day. Data are from 3 independent experiments and represent mean values ± S.E.M. ***p < 0.001.