Figure Captions
Figure 1: Camera Pictures of a HAuCl4 solution at 4.0×10-4 M in absence (1) and presence (2) of SS (A); UV-Vis spectra of solutions containing AuNPs (diluted 1:5), observing the typical SPR, collected at different incubation time from the mixture of HAuCl4 and SS (B); Time evolution of SPR absorbance intensity (Amax) versus the related FWHM (C); Time evolution of SPR wavelength registered in correspondence of the Amax versus the SPR FWHM (D).
Figure 2: FESEM images of AuNPs-SS (A, B ); AuNPs size distribution determined from FESEM images (500 particles) (C ).
Figure 3: High resolution XPS spectra of the AuNPs-SS and their relative curve-fitting: Au 4f (A ), C 1s (B ), O 1s (C ), N 1s spectra (D ).
Figure 4: ATR-FTIR spectra of SS, AuNPs-SS and SS after the AuNPs formation.
Figure 5: Positive ion MALDI-FT-ICR MS of the snail slime (A ) and AuNPs snail slime (B ) samples with DHB as matrix
Figure 6: Effect of pH on SPR wavelength position and FWHM (A ) and on ζ-potential values (B ).
Figure 7: Confluent monolayers of NCTC2544 were wounded by manually scratching as described in Materials and Methods and incubated with increasing concentrations of AuNPs-SS. Representative pictures of the wound gap taken at 0h, 24h and 48 h (A) ; Histograms reported the percentage of gap closure compared with time 0h(B) ; histogram representing viable cells (trypan blue negative) counted with the aid of a Burker chamber, as described in M&M(C) ; Western blot analysis of uPAR levels quantified by densitometric analysis; GAPDH was also examined to ensure equal loading of samples in each lane. For all the panels in the figure, data in the graphs represent the mean ± SD of at least three independent triplicate experiments. Asterisks (*p< 0.05) indicate significant differences of AuNPs-SS treated cells, from CTRL (untreated)(D) .
Figure 8: Optical images of untreated, LPS treated, or AuNPs-SS treated cells (A) ; histogram representing viable cells(B); RT–PCR analysis of mRNA levels of IL1β, IL6, iNOS in cells treated as in (A) (C) . Amplification of cDNA was carried out for 30 cycles and β-actin was used as the reference gene; results were from a typical experiment out of three. Densitometric analysis of the expression gene levels is reported at the bottom. Significance was assessed by one‐way ANOVA test followed by Newman-Keuls post test. Error bars indicate mean ± SD; Asterisks (*p< 0.05) indicate significant differences of LPS+AuNPs-SS treated cells from LPS, while Number sign (#p<0.05) indicates significant differences from CTRL (D) western blot analysis of iNOS and p65. Histograms on the right represent densitometric analysis of the iNOS and p65 protein levels. Asterisks (*p< 0.05) indicate significant differences of LPS+AuNPs-SS treated cells from LPS. Results were from a typical experiment out of three.