Figure 3.

Effects of different materials on macrophage activation. Monocytes were isolated from whole blood and were incubated on various nanocomposites of GO, GO-Au, and GO-Au (×2) for 96 h. (A) Macrophage marker CD68 (green) was examined using an immunofluorescence staining. Cell nuclear was stained with DAPI (blue). The positive CD68-expressed cells were regarded as macrophages that were further counted and quantified for detection of macrophage activation (B) and monocyte/macrophage conversion rate (C). Scale bar = 20 μm. Data were presented as the mean ± SD, * p < 0.05 and ** p < 0.01. Effects of different materials on platelets activation. Platelets were obtained from human plasma and were incubated on various as-prepared nanocomposites at 37 °C for 60 min. (D) Platelet’s morphological alteration was further analyzed and recorded using scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis. Scale bar = 10 μm (upper panels) and 1 μm (lower panels). Moreover, the as-prepared nanocomposite-mediated platelet adherence efficiency (E) and degree of platelet activation (F) were further calculated and quantified based on three independent SEM images. The data were expressed as means ± SD. * p < 0.05 and ** p < 0.01.