Figure 5

Interaction of silver wires and microparticles with A549 cells. A. Microscopic images were taken at 100× magnification after 24 h for untreated cells (control, upper left panel), and 15 min (upper right panel) and 24 h (lower left panel) after addition of 1.5 μm silver wires (SW 1.5 μm, final concentration 2.3 × 10¹⁰ Wrs/ml, 1.7 × 10¹⁶ nm²/ml, 6.46 mg/ml). After 24 h, enhanced agglomeration of wires on cells could be observed and the cells rounded up (lower left panel, 400×). B. Microscopic images were taken at 100× magnification after 24 h for untreated cells (control, upper left panel), and 15 min (upper right panel) and 48 h (lower left panel) after addition of microparticles (final concentration 3 × 10⁴ particles/ml, 8.3 × 1013 nm²/ml, 1.9 mg/ml). Rounded up cells and agglomeration of particles on cells could also be observed after 48 h (lower right panel, 400×).