Figure 5.

(A) Effects of NPs on the adherens junction of HUVECs were observed from confocal microscope. Scale bar is 20 µm. (B) Western-blot result of VE-cadherin protein expression by endothelial cells incubated with NPs. The concentration of NPs was listed below: Dex-Fe₂O₃: 120 µg Fe mL⁻¹, DMSA-Fe₂O₃: 60 µg Fe mL⁻¹, SiO₂ (100 nm): 25 µg mL⁻¹, TiO₂ (25 nm): 25 µg mL⁻¹, Pt (70 nm): 1 µg mL⁻¹, Au (50 nm): 200 µg mL⁻¹, and MWCNTs: 7.5 µg mL⁻¹. (C) Gap widths between cells treated by NPs which calculated from 10 groups. **: P<0.01 compared with the control group.

Abbreviation: HUVECs, human umbilical vein endothelial cells.