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Fig. 3
Heart and liver toxicity of silica NPs.
Effect on atrium and ventricle beat rate (a,c,e) and liver phenotype (b,d,f) of 20 nm (a,b), 50 nm (c,d) and 80 nm (e,f) silica NPs. Transgenic Tg(fabp10a:Dsred) 4dpf larvae were treated with silica NPs using concentrations ranging from 12.5 mg/l to 200 mg/l and at 5dpf and 7dpf examined for beat rate and liver phenotypes (g, scale bar = 0.5 mm), respectively. Terfenadine (10 μM) and paracetamol (10 mM) were used as positive controls. In case of beat rate measurements, 10 larvae were used individually per condition and results normalized against that of control larvae. The data represent the means and standard deviation for the pooled data (10 larvae, three independent biological replicates, n = 30). In case of liver phenotyping, 10 eggs were used individually per condition, and the result expressed as percentage of the total amount of larvae present that had a normal or abnormal liver (i.e. small, shrunk, swollen, spherical shape). The data represent the means and standard deviation for three independent biological replicates. (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, two-way ANOVA, Bonferroni correction).