Figure 3.

Effects of SiO₂NPs on tentacle structure are shown. Nematocytes, packed into tentacle battery cell complexes, were stained with toluidine blue. Battery cell complexes distribution in normal tentacles (A,D). Distribution of battery cell complexes in animals treated 24 h with 25 nM SiO₂NPs (B,E). The abnormal distribution of the complexes is recovered within 48 h from stimulus removal as shown in (C,F). Effects of SiO₂NPs on battery cell morphology cell. Isolated normal battery cell complex (G), battery cell complex from treated animal (H). (I) Quantitative estimation of the aberrant battery cells. The graph represents the percentage of collapsed battery cell complexes (red bar) at 10 and 25 nM SiO₂NPs after 24 h incubation compared to control relative to a sample of 100 battery cells complexes; data are means of three independent experiments; vertical bars indicate the standard deviation. In (G–I), either treated and control animals were macerated and the nuclei were counterstained with DAPI. Bar in (A–C) 200 μm; (D–H) 50 μm.