Figure 7.

Effects of AIE (5 g/kg, i.g., 2 days on/2 days off) exposure on activated caspase-3+IR expression in the hippocampal DG of male rat brain at P57 and P95. Figure on the left: AIE exposure remarkably increased the apoptosis marker activated caspase-3+IR from P57 (27%) to P95 (41%) compared with control group. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 compared with control group. Activated caspase-3+IR expression had a significantly maturational increase in control (16%) and AIE group (29%). ^#p < 0.05 compared with control or AIE group at P57, respectively. The data were expressed as the numbers of activated caspase-3+IR positive cells, each point is mean ± SEM per mm² (n = 8/group). Right panels: photomicrographs of confocal images in the granular cell layer of the hippocampal DG, activated caspased-3+ (green) and NeuN+ (red), Bar scale = 30 μm.