Figure 7.

Treatment with ROS scavenging agent N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) completely abolished the cytotoxicity of Ge substrates. Huh7 cells were grown on different Ge substrates for 5 days. To inhibit ROS accumulation, Huh7 were supplemented with 5 mM NAC. Cells were stained with propidium iodide to assess cell viability. The nuclei were counterstained with Hoechst blue. Afterward, cells were imaged using epifluorescent microscope IM-2FL (OPTIKA Italy), and quantitative analysis of survival rate of cells was then done using ImageJ software (NIH). One-way ANOVA with Newman–Keuls multiple comparison test was used. Data are expressed as means ± SEM (n = 3), *** p < 0.001. As a positive control, cells were treated with 20% ethanol for 60 min.