Research Paper Volume 10, Issue 7 pp 1556—1574

Nicotine exposure impairs germ cell development in human fetal ovaries cultured in vitro

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Figure 5. Dose-dependent decrease or increase of the number of meiotic germ cells (SCP3, MLH1) and of γH2AX positive cell, respectively, in nicotine treated fetal ovaries cultured for 4 days. (A) Representative IF images of ovarian tissue sections for SCP3; (B) representative IF images of ovarian tissue sections for MLH1 and γH2AX; (C) Relative percentage of SCP3 and MLH1 positive cells of ovaries cultured without (control) and with 1mM or 10mM nicotine. All experiments were repeated at least three times. (*) and (**) indicate significant (P < 0.05) and highly significant (P < 0.01) difference, respectively.