Title Page

Contents

Abstract 10

Ⅰ. INTRODUCTION 12

Ⅱ. MATERIALS AND METHODS 13

2.1. Materials 13

2.2. Preparation and characterization of the GNPs and SNPs 14

2.3. Isolation of bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMM) and primary culture. 15

2.4. Cytotoxicity analysis 16

2.5. TRAP assay and measurements 17

2.6. Actin ring formation and measurements 17

2.7. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) 18

2.8. Western blot 19

2.9. GNPs and SNPs uptake analysis using dark field 21

2.10. Statistical analyses 21

Ⅲ. RESULTS 22

3.1. Characterization of GNPs and SNPs 22

3.2. Cell viability by GNPs and SNPs in BMMs 23

3.3. GNPs and SNPs inhibited the formation of TRAP⁺ MNCs and actin rings 25

3.4. Inhibited gene expression by GNPs and SNPs in the RANKL-induced osteoclasts 27

3.5. Effects of GNPs and SNPs in RANKL-induced NF-κB signal pathways 29

3.6. Comparison of the GNPs and SNPs uptake ratio in the BMMs 33

Ⅳ. DISCUSSION 35

Ⅴ. CONCLUSION 37

REFERENCES 39

ABSTRACT IN KOREAN 48

Figure 1. Characterization of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) and silver nanoparticles (SNPs). 23

Figure 2. Effect on the cell viability of bone-marrow-derived macrophages (BMMs) 24

Figure 3. RANKL-induced tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) assay outcomes with GNPs or SNPs. 26

Figure 4. RANKL-induced actin ring structure with GNPs or SNPs for five days. 27

Figure 5. The mRNA expression level of (A) TRAP, (B) Cathepsin K (CTSK), (C) c-Fos, and (D) Nuclear activated... 28

Figure 6. The protein expression levels at various concentrations of GNPs or SNPs were measured. Immunoblotting was used to... 31

Figure 7. Comparison of the GNPs and SNPs Uptake Ratio in the BMMs. 34