Figure 5

The effect of carbon black nanomaterial on population of platelets. The effect of carbon black (CB) nanomaterial on population of platelets was observed by the scanning electron microscope. Washed platelets were incubated with citrated and phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) for control (A, D, G), with PBS-suspended CB nanomaterial (B, E, H) and for comparison, with ZnO [11] (C, F, I) for 1, 3 and 24 hours, respectively. After 1 and 3 hours the control and test samples contained disc-like platelets (A, B, D, E) characteristic for the resting state, while there were some platelets exhibiting deviation from the disc-like shape and tubular protrusions (characteristic for activated platelets) found after 24 hours (E, F). For comparison, the effect of ZnO caused shape changes of some platelets after 3 hours (F) while after 24 hours all platelets attained swollen globular shape with remnants of tubular protrusions, indicating their activation (G).