Cytotoxic effects of AgNP in MDM.

<p>MDM were exposed to 5, 10, 25 and 50 μg/mL of Ag20-cit, Ag20-PVP, Ag110-citrate, Ag110-PVP and the stabilizers PVP10 (0.2, 0.3, 0.7 and 1.7 μg/mL) and PVP40 (0.3, 0.6, 1.3 and 3.1 μg/mL) for 3, 6 and 24 hours at 37°C in a humidified 5% CO₂ environment. MDM cultured in complete culture media without NP exposure (0) were used as unexposed controls. Cell viability (panels <b>a</b>, <b>b</b> and <b>c</b>) and cytotoxicity proportional to LDH leakage (panels <b>d</b>, <b>e</b> and <b>f</b>) were measured by MTS and LDH assays, respectively. Percentages of viable cells were calculated as ratios of ODs of NP-exposed MDM (after the subtraction of background) to the ODs of unexposed MDM (after background subtraction) x 100. Toxicity was defined as percent (%) LDH leakage from cells calculated from the ratios of ODs of NP-exposed MDM (after background subtraction) to the ODs of unexposed MDM (after background subtraction) x 100. Each data point represents the mean ± SD from three independent experiments. Statistical significance relative to unexposed control MDM are shown as * (<i>p</i><0.05) or ** (<i>p</i><0.01). Horizontal dashed lines represent the level of viable cells (<b>a</b>, <b>b</b>, and <b>c</b>) or LDH (<b>d</b>, <b>e</b>, and <b>f</b>) leakage in unexposed MDMs.