FIG. 3.

Immunohistochemical staining of oxidized DNA with 8-oxoguanine (green) and nuclear staining with DAPI (blue). A 24-h exposure to ketamine (10µM) markedly increased oxidative DNA damage as evidenced by increased 8-oxoguanine formation in ketamine-exposed cultures (B) compared with controls (A). Scale bar = 50 µm. An 8-oxo-dG ELISA (C) showed that coadministration of l-carnitine (30 or 100µM) effectively blocked the 8-oxo-dG increase induced by ketamine. No significant effects were observed when l-carnitine was administered alone. Each condition was assessed at least in triplicate and experiments were repeated independently three times. Data are presented as means ± SD. *p < 0.05 was considered significant compared with control.