Fig. 6.

PCBs increase βIII-tubulin positive nerve fibers in bladder of developmentally exposed mice. Mice were exposed to PCBs via the maternal diet throughout gestation and lactation and bladders collected from male and female offspring at postnatal day (P) 28–31 for immunohistochemistry. Representative images of (A) male and (B) female mouse bladders (epithelium and stroma) from each PCB dose group incubated with antibodies targeting beta III tubulin (β-tubulin, green) to label nerve fibers, e-cadherin (CDH1, red) to label all epithelium and DAPI (blue) to stain nuclei. Quantification of (C-D) the percent area within 10 µm of the epithelium with βIII-tubulin positive nerve fibers, (E-F) percent area of stroma with βIII-tubulin positive nerve fibers, (G-H) percent area of muscle with βIII-tubulin positive nerve fibers. Results are mean ± SEM, n = 4–6 bladders per group. *Significantly different versus same sex vehicle control, bar and * indicate other significant differences as determined using one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s multiple comparisons tests, p ≤ 0.05. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)