Fig. 5

Impact of silica NFs on the in vitro liver model. A HepG2/C3A cells were cultured as a monolayer in 96 well plates for 24 h and exposed to 9.6, 48 and 96 ug/mL of Silica and CuO NFs for 24 h followed by the assessment of viability using Alamar blue assay. B HepG2/C3A IL-8 expression and C IL-8 secretion assessed by real time PCR and ELISA assay, respectively, after 24 h of exposure to NFs (48 µg/mL). D, E and F BF pairwise similarity assessment was conducting comparing the curves of % viability, HepG2/C3A cells IL-8 mRNA expression fold increase and IL8 protein production measured in pg/mL, together with the concentration values. BF Values range between 0 and 1 (similar NFs). BF Values close to zero indicate that the NFs are not similar. Data are shown as mean ± standard deviation. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 and ****p < 0.0001 versus untreated. Triton X100 (0.01%) and LPS (10 µg/mL) were used as positive control for viability and cytokine expression/secretion, respectively