Figure 6.

Proteinase K degradation assay of LL-37 in 20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.0 with a total of 20 ng Proteinase K. (a) Representative Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate–Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) gels before and after proteolytic degradation of pure LL-37 and LL-37-loaded on CaP_S nanoparticles. A clear LL-37 band can be seen at a size of 4.5 kDa which starts degrading steadily after 20 min incubation, however, when loaded on CaP_S, the LL-37 resists degradation up until 240 min incubation. Input is the pure LL-37 or LL-37-loaded on CaP_S nanoparticles (CaP_S-LL-37) without any proteinase K added. Gel pictures shown are representative of at least three repetitions; (b) Quantification of bands for numerical assessment of degradation. Error bars are shown as standard deviation (N = 3).