Fig. 2.

Cellular copper uptake and intracellular copper distribution after treatment with CuO NP, CuO MP and CuCl₂. Copper content was determined in the soluble fraction of the total cell (a), the cytoplasm (b) and the nucleus (c) in BEAS-2B cells after 24 h treatment with the different copper compounds via GF-AAS. Shown are mean values of three independent experiments + SD ((a) and CuO NP (b,c)), mean values of six independent experiments + SD (10 μg/mL CuO NP (b,c)) or mean values of two independent experiments + R/2 (CuO MP and CuCl₂ (b, c)). Statistically significant different from control: *p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001 performed in case of (a) and CuO NP (b, c) (ANOVA-Dunnett’s T test). 20 μg/mL CuO are equal to 252 μM Cu²⁺. n.d.: not determined