Figure 2: Low, reproducible toxicity of monodisperse ncSi:AB fractions.
From: Enhanced cellular uptake of size-separated lipophilic silicon nanoparticles
(a) Graph of EC50 plots showing toxicity of 18 fractions, the ENS, the lipid-only control and calculated EC-50 values of toxic and non-toxic SiO2 particles from the literature15. The EC-50 values for each fraction were compared between three batches using a student t-test to determine the reproducibility of EC-50 values. The error bars represent the standard deviation of the triplicate experiments for each batch of nanoparticles (A, B and C). Statistical comparison of the EC-50 values of the individual fractions using ANOVA and then the Tukey test on fractions A, B and C showed fractions 1, 2, 4, 5, 11, 12, 14, 18 and the ENS to be significantly less toxic (*) than the others (3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 16, 17). (b) Merged fluorescence and bright field image of a single cell showing localization of nanoparticles in the cytoplasm around the nucleus at a lower concentration than the EC-50 value. Scale bar = 5 μm.
