FIG. 1.

Hypothyroidism during pregnancy decreases the number of midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons in the offspring. (A, B) Pregnant mice were treated with propyl-thio-uracil (PTU), and the midbrain DA neurons in the offspring were stained with tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and quantified as described in the Materials and Methods section. (A) Representative images of TH staining in the midbrain of the P0 offspring are shown. Row 2 is the amplification of the dotted rectangles. Arrow shows the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the midbrain. Scale bar: 200 μm. E13.5 and P14 representative images are shown in Supplementary Fig. S1. (B) The statistical results of TH⁺ cell counts in the midbrain of the offspring. n=6, one-way ANOVA followed by Fisher's post hoc test, **P<0.01. (C) DA and DOPAC content in the brain tissues of the P0 offspring. Data are presented as pg of DA or DOPAC per g of wet tissue. n=12, Student's t-test, **P<0.01. For all experiments, data are presented as the mean±standard error of mean (SEM). Color images available online at www.liebertpub.com/scd