It can be seen from this figure that the coumarin 6-loaded CA-PLA-TPGS nanoparticles (green) were closely located around the nuclei (blue, stained by DAPI), indicating that the fluorescent nanoparticles had been internalized into the MCF-7 cells. Figure 6 CLSM images of MCF-7 cells after 4 h of incubation with the coumarin 6-loaded

CA-PLA-TPGS nanoparticles. The coumarin 6-loaded nanoparticles were green, and the cells were stained by DAPI (blue). The cellular uptake was visualized by overlaying images obtained using the EGFP filter and DAPI filter: (A) EGFP channel, green; (B) DAPI channel, blue; and (C) combined EGFP channel and DAPI channel. The cellular uptake efficiency of the coumarin 6-loaded https://www.selleckchem.com/products/elacridar-gf120918.html nanoparticles was also measured, and the data are displayed in Figure 7. It can be seen from this picture that the cellular uptake efficiency of all coumarin 6-loaded p38 MAPK pathway nanoparticles decreased with the increase of the incubated nanoparticle concentration from 100 to 500 μg/mL. The cellular uptake efficiency of the CA-PLA-TPGS nanoparticles was 1.20-, 1.20-, and 1.14-fold higher than that of the PLA-TPGS nanoparticles at the nanoparticle concentration of 100, 250, and 500 μg/mL, respectively.

This may be because of the smaller particle size and increased cell adherence capacity of the CA-PLA-TPGS nanoparticles. The results also showed that the cell uptake efficiency of both the star-shaped CA-PLA-TPGS nanoparticles and the linear PLA-TPGS nanoparticles was higher than that of the linear PLGA nanoparticles. It has SB-3CT been reported in the literature that particle size plays a predominant role in the cellular uptake of biodegradable polymeric nanoparticles [41]. Thus, it can be believed that the CA-PLA-TPGS nanoparticles with smaller particle size would have higher cellular uptake efficiency. Similar results were also obtained by other researchers [42]. Figure

7 Cellular uptake efficiency of the coumarin 6-loaded nanoparticles. In vitro cell viability of PTX-loaded nanoparticles Human MCF-7 cell lines were applied to investigate the cytotoxicity of PTX-loaded nanoparticles. The clinical PTX formulation (Taxol®) was designed as the positive control. The different groups of nanoparticles were sterilized using gamma radiation. Figure 8 displays the in vitro cell viability of PTX formulated in the linear PLA-TPGS nanoparticles, star-shaped CA-PLA-TPGS nanoparticles, and Taxol® at equivalent PTX concentrations of 0.25, 2.5, 10, and 25 μg/mL. A quantitative colorimetric assay of MTT was used to determine the percentage of viable cells [42]. It can be concluded from Figure 8 that (a) the cell suppression of Taxol® and the drug-loaded polymeric nanoparticles showed both dose- and time-dependent responses. The cell viability decreased steadily with increasing drug dose and incubation time, especially for the drug-loaded star-shaped CA-PLA-TPGS nanoparticles.