Figure 5

Intracellular localization of AgNPs in BEAS-2B cells. Intracellular localization of AgNPs was investigated by TEM (A-F with corresponding inserts a-f).TEM images of untreated BEAS-2B cells show no morphological modifications (A, a). After 24 h exposure to 10 μg/mL 10 nm citrate coated (B, b), 10 nm PVP coated (C, c), 40 nm citrate coated (D, d), 75 nm citrate coated (E, e), and 50 nm uncoated (F, f) AgNPs, particles were taken up and contained mainly within membrane-bound structures (b, d, e, f). Vesicular structures consistent with autophagy were detected for the 10 nm PVP coated AgNPs (c).