Fig. 2

Confocal microscopy of AF-20-bearing VLPs to Hep3B and Thle-3 cells. Cells at 70% confluency were incubated with 10 µg (2.4 × 10¹² particles) of AlexaFluor 488-labeled AF-20-bearing VLPs for 2 h at 37 °C in serum-free EMEM. Cells were then fixed with 3.7% formaldehyde and stained with CellTracker Red CMFDA to visualize the cytoplasm and Hoechst 33342 to visualize the genetic material in the nucleus. Cells were then imaged with a Zeiss LSM510 META confocal microscope. Note the abundance of AF-20-bearing VLPs bound to Hep3B but not Thle-3 cells. Examination of z-stacks of images also indicated some internalization of bound particles in the Hep3B sample (not shown). Scale bars 10 μm