Fig. 3

Characterization of the A549-OncoCilAir™ model revealed different cell proliferation profiles. Representative pictures under white light (a) and GFP-fluorescence (b) of the cultures, on a same insert. Tumor cell evolution according to GFP expression by FCM analysis during AGuIX^® NP’s exposure (c), monitored by microscopy for 2 weeks (d), and an example of FCM cell cycle analysis (e–h). d Boxplots (line: median, box: 25–75% percentiles, and whiskers: min–max) of the temporal evolution of relative tumor areas in 3 independent experiments. Bars indicate significant differences between groups (Tukey’s test, *p < 0.05, *p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001). e Example of the tumor cell subpopulations as a function of GFP status (n = 6). The 3 subpopulations containing no (P3, f), low (P4, g), or high (P5, h) levels of GFP fluorescence were separated and analyzed for cell cycle proliferation using Hoechst staining (n ≥ 9). The quiescent (P6, P8 and P10) and proliferative (P7, P9, and P11) subpopulations are shown. The different percentages of cells are indicated above each panel for this representative example