Fig 7. A) Conjugation effect: EGF in supernatant (after conjugation) compared with free EGF and EGF-conjugated HAOA-coated gold nanoparticles; B) EGF-conjugated HAOA-coated gold nanoparticles, at different scale bar.

Fluorescence excitation spectra was fixed at 330 nm and fluorescence emission spectra was fixed at 295 nm. Experiments were conducted at 20°C and excitation slit size fixed at 2.0 mm (4.40 μW). No continuous excitation of EGF was conducted, beside the necessary for obtaining the represented spectra.