Figure 3.
Mercuric compounds treatment regulated apoptotic related gene expression in the islets of mice. Mice were gavaged with 2 mg/kg/day MeHgCl or 5 mg/kg/day HgCl2 for 2 consecutive weeks, and the expression of anti-apoptotic (Bcl-2, Mcl-1, Mdm-2) (A) and apoptotic (p53, caspase-3 and caspase-7) (B) genes in the isolated islets were analyzed by real-time quantitative RT-PCR using SYBR Green. Target gene expression was normalized to β-actin, and the results are expressed as a fold change from the control. Results are expressed as mean ± SEM. (n = 8 mice for each group). * p < 0.05 as compared with control group.