Table 1.

The relationship between gold nanoparticles (GNPs)’ properties and apoptosis.

	Properties		Cell Type		Cell Death			Ref.
	Size	Surface	Normal	Cancer	Apoptosis	Necrosis	Autophagy
GNPs	1 nm	BSA		HepG-2	+	+	N.A.	[65]
	1.5 nm	TMAT (positive charge), MES (negative charge)	HaCaT		+	−	N.A.	[55]
	2.3 nm	l/d-glutathione		MGC-803	+(d-glutathione > l-glutathione)	−	N.A.	[58]
	2.7 nm	2-mercapto-1-methylimidazole		SH-SY5Y	+	N.A.	N.A.	[66]
	1–10 nm	sodium polyacrylate (negative charge)	freshly isolated human neutrophils		+	N.A.	N.A.	[56]
	7.4 nm	PVP		HT-29	+	−	N.A.	[59]
	13 nm	citrate	Primary rabbit articular chondrocytes		+	−	N.A.	[52]
	13 nm	PEG	Liver of BALB/c mice		+	N.A.	N.A.	[67]
	20–25 nm	DCaLC, DCaC, DcaDC Hydrophobicity: DCaLC > DCaDC > DCaC		A549	+(DCaLC > DCaDC > DCaC)	N.A.	N.A.	[57]
	29 nm	NaBH4		A549	+	N.A.	N.A.	[64]
	40 nm	citrate	head kidney of Sparus aurata		+	N.A.	N.A.	[63]
	40 nm	PVP	head kidney of Sparus aurata		+	N.A.	N.A.	[63]
	10–40 nm	N.A.	Vero cells		+	N.A.	N.A.	[72]
	4 nm, 100 nm	PEG	liver tissue of BALB/c mice		+(4 nm ≈ 100 nm)	N.A.	N.A.	[51]
	8, 15, 40 nm	citrate	SPEV, HL7702	HT-29, A549	+	+	N.A.	[60,61,62]
	5 nm, 15 nm	citrate	human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL), Raw264.7		+(15 nm > 5 nm)	+	N.A.	[53]
	20 nm, 70 nm	N.A.	Human polymorpho-nuclear neutrophil cells		+	N.A.	N.A.	[74]
GNRs	16.7 nm × 43.8 nm	PEG	HaCaT		+	N.A.	N.A.	[50]
	10 nm × 39 nm, 10 nm × 41 nm	N.A.		AGS	+	N.A.	N.A.	[71]
	50–60 nm × 20–30 nm	CTAB		MCF-7, N87	+	+	N.A.	[73]
Hexagonal GNPs	150 nm × 9 nm	HS–C2H4–CONH–PEG–O–C3H6–COOH		Calu-3	+	N.A.	N.A.	[54]

+: positive results; −: negative results; N.A.: not available.