Fig. 5.

 Effects of extracts on the production of β- hCG in BeWo b30 cells. The control consisted of cell culture media containing 0.2% of DMSO. Data are presented as mean ± SD of at least 3 independent experiments (n = 3 – 4; in triplicate). a  Comparison of β- hCG secretion of BeWo b30 cells upon 48 h treatment with increasing concentrations of test compounds vs. 50 µM FSK control. b  Effects on inhibition of FSK-induced differentiation of BeWo b30 cells (detected by measuring β- hCG). Treatment with 5 µM FSK led to increased β- hCG levels in all test compounds after exposure to different concentrations (1, 3, 10, 30 µg/mL) after an incubation of 48 h. Cells were pre-treated with the test compounds (or cell culture medium) for 24 h, before adding 5 µM FSK for another 24 h.