Fig. 3.

Viability studies. Alexander, HepG2 and Huh7 cells were treated with indicated concentrations of either IO-cubes (a) or IO-clusters (b) for 48 h. The alamarBlue cell viability assay was used to assess degree of cellular viability. The data were normalized to control values (no particle exposure), which were set as 100% cell viability. Control cells were untreated. As a positive control, cells were treated with 20% ethanol for 60 min. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM (n = 3), **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. c Cell viability comparison among different hepatic cell lines as detected by the alamarBlue cell viability assay. Cells were treated with 100 µg/mL of either IO-cubes or IO-clusters. d IO-cubes and IO-clusters reduce the viability of human hepatic cell lines to a similar rate