Effects of NAC on non-cytotoxic AgNP-induced p38 activation in HepG2 cells.

<p>(A) Cells were pretreated with 10 mM NAC for 2 hours prior to 24 hours exposure with a series of concentrations of 10 nm AgNPs, 100 nm AgNPs or Ag⁺, and the samples were analyzed with dual-phospho-p38 (Thr180/Tyr182) antibody and dual-phospho-JNK (Thr183/Tyr185) antibody, respectively, using western blot. β-actin was used for equal loading. The panel shows images representative of three independent experiments. (B, C, D) The intensity of each chemiluminescence protein band was analyzed by ImageJ and normalized to the MAPKpp/β-actin ratio (control = 1), with the data expressed as mean ± S.D. (n = 3), *<i>p</i><0.05.