Figure 1.

MeHg-induced toxicity and oxidative stress are concomitant with Nrf2 activation of phase II detoxifying enzyme transcription. Astrocytes were treated with 5 μM MeHg for 6 hours, and cell viability (A; n =3) and cytotoxicity (B; n = 4) assessed by MTT and LDH assays, respectively. ROS generation (C; n = 4) was also measured by CM-H2DCFDA fluorescence, to indicate oxidative stress. Further, Nrf2 activation was confirmed by qRT-PCR of target genes Hmox1 (n = 5) and Nqo1 (n =6) (D). All data were normalized to untreated controls, and represent the mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001