Fig. 3.

PIONs mediated cell apoptosis, cytoskeleton depolymerization and lysosomal escape under NIR irradiation. (A) Apoptotic cells caused by LNC CRYBG3 and PTT. (B) The apoptosis rate in (A) increased significantly in the combination treatment. (C) F-actin and G-actin protein levels in the A549 cells in different groups. (D) LNC CRYBG3 overexpression influenced the normal structure of the cytoskeleton of A549 cells as demonstrated by phalloidin staining. Scale bar = 50 μm. (E) Laser scanning confocal microscope images of A549 cells incubated with PIONs-Cy5.5 (200 μg/mL) for 2 h. Scale bar = 50 μm. (F) Laser scanning confocal microscope images of A549 cells incubated with PIONs-Cy5.5 (200 μg/mL) for 2 h after 10 min NIR (808 nm, 1 W/cm²) irradiation. A549 cells were incubated with PIONs-Cy5.5 (200 μg/mL) for 2 h and then exposed to the NIR irradiation (1 W/cm²) for 5 min and the laser scanning confocal microscope images were taken at different time points post irradiation. Scale bar = 50 μm. (G) The percentage of binucleated cells was also increased following the combination treatment. (H) The quantitive data of (E). (I) Quantitive data of (F). Nuclei of cells were stained by 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) and lysosomes were stained with LysoTracker Red. PIONs were labeled with Cy5.5. The data are expressed as mean ± standard deviation (SD). The error bar is derived from triplicate measurements. ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01, *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.)