Figure 6

The effect of carbon black nanomaterial on giant unilamellar vesicles. Quantity of giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) incubated in chambers with 0.3 M glucose solution (control) and suspension of CB nanomaterial (0.05 mg/mL in 0.3 M glucose solution). Samples of GUVs were incubated with sugar solution for control and with carbon black (CB) nanomaterial suspended in sugar solution (0.05 mg/mL), for 20 minutes and 50 minutes, respectively. Each empty dot corresponds to a number of vesicles obtained in one sample, i.e. one replicate of each tested group. One sample of a population consists of all vesicles captured in two individual video tracks at different places in a chamber. Based on preliminary calculations, two such video tracks capture approximately 3% of the whole population of vesicles in the chamber. The red square in the center of the box plot represents the mean value of (A) the number of GUVs or (B) GUVs’ eccentricity, the central line is the median value, and the lower and upper lines of the box represent the 25th and 75th percentiles. The whiskers are set at two standard deviations from the mean value. Addition of CB nanomaterial considerably diminished the number of GUVs in the sample while the remaining GUVs exhibited an increased eccentricity of the contour (elongation).