Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2018 Nov 15;8:16903. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-35043-w

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

© The Author(s) 2018

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

PMC Copyright notice

Inhibition of hTERT gene expression by blood plasma of PCB exposed individuals. (A) Tert⁺ B6B5.1 cells were incubated with longitudinally collected plasma samples from the HELPcB-cohort (N = 92 per time point; each with three technical replicates) or with plasma samples from individuals exposed to PCB via indoor air (N = 105; each with three technical replicates). After 48 hours of incubation, luciferase activities were determined. Statistical analysis was performed by a Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test. Statistically significant differences are indicated (*P = 0.05; ****P < 0.0001). (B) PBMCs from healthy donors (0 RhD negative) were stimulated with tetanus toxoid for five days, reseeded and incubated in the presence of antigen- and PCB-containing plasma samples from the HELPcB-cohort as described in A. After 48 hours of incubation, hTERT gene expression was assessed by qRT-PCR. Statistical analysis was performed by a Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test. (C) Mean plasma levels for Σ higher chlorinated PCBs (grey), Σ dioxin-like PCBs (white) and Σ lower chlorinated PCBs (black) from longitudinally collected samples (HELPcB-cohort) and from individuals exposed to PCB via indoor air. Statistical analysis was performed by a Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test. SD and statistically significant differences are given for Σ lower chlorinated PCBs (****P < 0.0001). (D) Mean ± SD ratio of hTERT expression (N = 184) for individual indicator PCBs depending on plasma concentration. HC PCBs, DL PCBs and LC PCBs were separated using the median value as cut off. Statistical analysis was performed by a Mann-Whitney test. Statistically significant differences are indicated.