Figure 1.

Norepinephrine (NE) increases the ROS production. H9c2 cells and isolated intact fetal hearts (ex vivo) were treated with 10 μM NE in the absence or presence of NAC (1 mM), apocynin (Apo, 0.5 mM), or DPI (10 μM) for 16 h. Pregnant rats were treated with saline or nicotine via osmotic minipumps from d 4 to 21 of gestation in the absence or presence of NAC (500 mg/kg/d) in the drinking water, and 21 d fetal hearts were isolated for analysis (in vivo). A) ROS measurement with DCF-based quantitative assay kits. B) ROS measurement with confocal image of DHE fluorescence. Representative images are shown; quantification of images is shown in Supplemental Fig. S2. C) Mitochondrial ROS measurement with confocal image of MitoTracker Red CM-H2XRos in H9c2 cells. Data are means ± se, n = 6. *P < 0.05 vs. control.