Fig 5. Effect of curcumin on the expression of late adhesion molecules induced by TiO₂-NPs.

A) Top panel ICAM-1, B) Middle panel: PECAM-1, C) Bottom panel: VCAM-1. Cells were treated with curcumin at 1 (C1), 10 (C10) and 100 (C100) μM alone or in combination with 3 and 10 μg/cm² of TiO₂-NPs (3) and (10) for 24 h. The expression of late adhesion molecules was evaluated by flow cytometry. Curcumin was added 1 h before the addition of TiO₂-NPs. TNF-α (10 ng/mL) was used as positive control. The left side shows histograms of a representative experiment. The right side shows data as mean ± standard deviation (SD) of three separate experiments, expressed as percentage of fluorescence in comparison with positive control (100%). p < 0.05, experiments compared with untreated cells (Control) (*) and with TiO₂-NPs alone (&).