Figure 3.

(a, c, e) Schematic illustration of the correlation between PEG conformation, clusterin density, and cellular uptake and (b, d, f) the cellular uptake results of OVA and OVA-PEG NCs by BMDCs at various PEG molecular weights and surface densities. (a, b) Increasing PEG density at constant molecular weight (2000 g mol^–1). (c, d) Increasing molecular weight at constant grafting density (0.2 chains nm^–2). (e, f) Constant number of ethylene glycol units per nm² but with different PEG molecular weights and densities (mushroom–brush intermediate conformation: PEG2k at 0.5 chains/nm²; brush conformation: PEG5k at 0.2 chains/nm²). BMDCs (1 × 10⁶ cells mL^–1) were incubated with various PEGylated OVA-NCs in the absence (no proteins) or presence of human plasma proteins (hP) for 4 h. The median fluorescence intensity (MFI) was measured by flow cytometry. Cells treated with non-PEGylated OVA-NCs and untreated cells were used as controls.