Figure 2.

DEX-treatment had no effect on morphology and cell viability in human fetal adrenals cultured ex vivo. (A) Morphology and expression pattern of BrdU (proliferation marker) and cPARP (apoptosis marker) investigated on serial sections of vehicle control and DEX (10 μM) treated HFA tissue cultured ex vivo for 14 days (Experimental setup A). Counterstaining with Mayer’s hematoxylin; scale bar corresponds to 100 μm. (B) Quantification of BrdU⁺ and cPARP⁺ cells per mm² tissue relative to the respective mean of vehicle controls. Values represent mean with 95% CI, n = 12 fetuses. The values from the individual fetal samples are shown and represent 1-11 analyzed tissue fragments per fetal sample, depending on the initial size of the adrenal gland. Significant difference between vehicle control and DEX treated samples were analyzed using the Wilcoxon matched-pairs rank test.