Antiteratogenic Effects of 𝜷-Carotene in Cultured Mouse Embryos Exposed to Nicotine

Figure 4

Gene expression levels of antioxidant enzymes in E8.5 mouse embryos exposed to nicotine and β-carotene for 2 days in vitro. Levels of mRNA for cytoplasmic superoxide dismutase (SOD1, (a)), manganese SOD (SOD2, (b)), cytoplasmic glutathione peroxidase (GPx1, (c)), and phospholipid hydroperoxide GPx (GPx4, (d)) in embryos exposed to 1 mM nicotine in the absence or presence of 1 × 10⁻⁷ or 5 × 10⁻⁷ μM β-carotene (β-car) were measured by quantitative RT-PCR. Results are mean ± SEM (𝑛=8). β-actin was used as an internal standard to normalize target transcript expression. Significant differences (*control versus nicotine alone; ^#nicotine versus β-car + nicotine) were evaluated by one-way ANOVA at 𝑃<0.05.

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