Figure 3

Intracellular compartmentalization of fluorescent PLGA microspheres inside peritoneal macrophages. Confocal images of peritoneal macrophages incubated with fluorescent microspheres (green) for 1 day (A-B), 5 days (C-D), 8 days (E-F) and 10 days (G-H). Texas Red dextran was used as late endossome/lysosomal marker (red). Microspheres did not co-localize with Texas Red dextran in the endo-lysosomal compartment at any of the analyzed time (A, C, E and G). (B, D, F and H): Differential interference contrast microscopy of peritoneal macrophages incubated with microspheres plus Texas Red dextran. Arrows show intracellular hydrolysis of microspheres inside macrophages.