Figure 3.

AAS analysis demonstrate the accelerated uptake of AuNPs into cells. (a) After CAP treatment (75 kV, 0, 30 s), U373MG cells were treated with 100 μg/ml AuNPs together with 1% NaN₃ or without to inhibit endocytosis, then incubated at 37 °C or 4 °C as indicated before calculating the average amount of Au per cell using AAS. The uptake curves were assessed by non-linear regression analyses. All experiments were repeated in six replicates. (b) The short-time effects of CAP with or without 1% NaN₃ were compared_. (c) The uptake of AuNPs incubated at 4 °C for 0.5, 1, 4, 6 h. (d) The role of long-lived ROS generated by CAP on endocytosis in U373MG cells was determined by using Plasma activated media (PAM; 75 kV, 30 s, stored overnight) in place of CAP. For Fig. 3b–d, all experiments were repeated in six replicates. The statistical significances were assessed by two-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparison post-test (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001).