Fig. 2

Evaluation of FAC, Venofer and IONP toxicity, and quantification of dead Vero E6 cells. A Viability of Vero E6 cells after treatment with FAC, Venofer or IONPs, as measured with the PrestoBlue fluorometric test. B and C TUNEL staining analysis of the proportion of dead Vero E6 cells after incubation with FAC, Venofer and IONPs. Images were taken with a 63X oil objective under a 3X zoom: TUNEL positive cells (green), PI counterstaining (red) and nanoparticles (grey). The positive control cells (+) in B and C were cells treated for 1 h with H₂O₂ (2 mM) and the results (mean ± SD) are representative of three independent experiments. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and a Student’s t-test were used to assess the TUNEL data, and the asterisks indicate significant differences: *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001