Fetal and Neonatal Nicotine Exposure in Wistar Rats Causes Progressive Pancreatic Mitochondrial Damage and Beta Cell Dysfunction
Figure 1
Mitochondrial morphology during postnatal development.
A) The number of mitochondria per beta cell area; B) individual mitochondrion area; and C) percentage of mitochondria with blebbing and/or merging with a neighboring mitochondria from offspring at 3, 15 and 26 weeks of age following exposure to either saline or nicotine during fetal and neonatal development. Representative electron microscopy photographs are provided to illustrate: D) typical mitochondrial structure (indicated by striped arrows) in the beta cells of saline and nicotine-exposed offspring during postnatal development, and E) examples of mitochondrial blebbing and merging (indicated by solid black arrows); N = nucleus. All data are presented as the mean±SEM. Values with an asterisk are significantly different from the saline control (p<0.05).