Figure 7.

NAC increased the resistance of pancreatic islets against H₂O₂-induced oxidative stress. NAC was given to females during pregnancy and lactation. Pancreatic islets of offspring were isolated at age of 6 weeks. (A) Isolated pancreatic islets were treated with different doses of H₂O₂, and stained with propidium iodide, as described in Methods. A total of 3 representing micrographs are presented. The number of dead cells/islets was quantified in female (B) and male (C) mice. (D) mRNA was isolated from islets of 6 weeks old mice, and expression of selected genes was measured by RTPCR as described in Methods. Results were normalized to the expression of the housekeeping gene, RPS29 and are presented as the mean ± SEM. (E) Immunohistochemistry for the expression of SOD and Catalase was performed in pancreas of 6 weeks old male mice, and the expression level was blindly scored. The results are presented as mean ± SEM (n = 5, 3 replicates for each experiment), * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.005 and *** p < 0.0005 in one-way Anova followed by Tukey’s post-test.