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. 2022 Dec 8;28(3):1383–1395. doi: 10.1038/s41380-022-01898-9

Fig. 5. Prenatal stress-induced dentate TERT deficiency leads to dysfunctional HPA axis in adult offspring.

Fig. 5

a The mRNA levels of TERT, GR, and GAPDH in the hippocampus of newborn mice experienced prenatal stress. n = 3-4. One-way ANOVA. b The mRNA levels of TERT, GR, and GAPDH in the DG of 3-month-old offspring experienced prenatal stress. n = 4–5. One-way ANOVA. c The concentration of CORT in the plasma of 3-month-old offspring experienced prenatal stress. n = 3–6. One-way ANOVA. d CpG sites in the promotor and exons of mouse Tert gene. e Methylation levels of Chr13:73764379 and Chr13:73764526 in the DG of 3-month-old offspring experienced prenatal stress. n = 5. One-way ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis test. f Luciferase experiments were performed in 293T cells transfected with control plasmid pTK, plasmid pTERT, or plasmid pTERT379mut. n = 4. Two-way ANOVA. Schematic design of the construction of AD-TERT526mut-GFP, and the TERT mRNA level (g) and activity (h) in the cultured hippocampal NSCs cells infected with AD-GFP, AD-TERT-GFP, or AD-TERT526mut-GFP. n = 4–6. One-way ANOVA. i The methylation level of Chr13:73764526 and the expression of TERT in the DG after selectively editing of DNA methylation of Chr13:73764379. A volume of 1 μl of LV-Tert526-SV40-DNMT3A or LV-Scramble-SV40-DNMT3A was microinjected into the DG of 5-week mice experienced prenatal stress. Two months later, the tests were performed. n = 5. One-way ANOVA. The mRNA level of TERT, GR, MR, and GAPDH in the DG (j, k) and the concentration of CORT in the plasma (l) of 3-month-old offspring infused LV-TERT-EGFP or LV-EGFP into the DG of 5 weeks old mice experienced prenatal stress. n = 4. One-way ANOVA. m, n Representative photos and analytical data showing the number of c-FOS+ cells in the DG of Tert−/− and WT mice with or without prenatal stress. Acute stress (1-hour restraining) was performed 30 minutes before collection of the plasma and perfusion with 4% PFA. n = 5. Two-way ANOVA. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ns indicates no significant difference. Error bars indicate s.e.m.