Fig. 5:

Cellular uptake of dye(s)-loaded PGRA micelles and efficacy of GemRA-loaded NPs towards PANC-1 cells. (A and B) PANC-1 cell uptake of PGRA-micelles loaded with FRET dyes: dye 1 (3,3′-dioctadecyloxacarbocyanine perchlorate) and dye 2 (1,1′-Dioctadecyl-3,3,3′,3′-tetramethylindocarbocyanine perchlorate) (separately loaded), and mixed dyes 1 and 2 (co-loaded) as assessed via flow cytometry (N=2), excitation was 488 nm and the detection channel filters, ((A) channel 1, 530 ± 15 nm (red) and (B) channel 2, 585 ± 20 nm (green)) were employed; (C) cell uptake of the mixed dye-loaded NPs by fluorescence microscopy, ((i) and (ii) show the bright field and blue channel (LysoTracker™ staining) images respectively, (iii) shows the green channel (co-loaded dyes) image while the merged image is shown in (iv), the white arrows show NP colocalization around the nuclei. Scale bars =20 μm. (D) Cell viability of PANC-1 cells following GemRA-loaded NP and gemcitabine incubation (***p<0.001, for significance, p≤0.05 based on one way ANOVA with a post Tukey test) (N=4), (E) a comparison of cell viability of PANC-1 cells following GemRA-loaded NP and drug-free NP incubation and (F) flow cytometry results showing GemRA-loaded NPs induce apoptosis (increased TUNEL-reagent fluorescence intensity) of PANC-1 cells (N=2) (*p<0.05, for significance, p≤0.05). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)