Figure 4.

The cell viabilities of Mcf-7 cells incubated with gemcitabine, MWNTs, MWNTs-Ge and MWNTs-Ge-Le under NIR irradiation were established via MTT assay (A) and schematic illustration of the chemo-photothermal combined cancer therapy under 808 nm NIR laser irradiation of MWNTs-Ge-Le composite (B).

Notes: Gemcitabine (5), MWNTs-Ge (5) and MWNTs-Ge-Le (5) had the same concentration of gemcitabine (5 μg·mL⁻¹). Gemcitabine (10), MWNTs-Ge (10) and MWNTs-Ge-Le (10) had the same concentration of gemcitabine (10 μg·mL⁻¹). Gemcitabine (20), MWNTs-Ge (20) and MWNTs-Ge-Le (20) had the same concentration of gemcitabine (20 μg·mL⁻¹). The NIR irradiation power density was 2 W·cm⁻² (5 min). The bars are presented as the mean ± SEM (unpaired t-test; ***P<0.001 compared with without NIR irradiation; ^ΔP<0.05, ^ΔΔP<0.01 and ^ΔΔΔP<0.001 compared with the relative MWNTs-Ge-treated group; ^⋆⋆P<0.01 and ^⋆⋆⋆P<0.001 compared with the relative MWNTs and gemcitabine treated groups).

Abbreviations: Mcf-7, Michigan cancer foundation-7; MWNTs, multiwalled carbon nanotubes; MWNTs-Ge, multiwalled carbon nanotubes/gemcitabine; MWNTs-Ge-Le, multiwalled carbon nanotubes/gemcitabine/lentinan; MTT, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide; NIR, near-infrared; PBS, phosphate-buffered solution; SEM, standard error of the mean.