Figure 2
From: Disruption of retinal pigment epithelial cell properties under the exposure of cotinine
The effect of nicotine and cotinine on RPE cell survival. (A) Cell viability of ARPE-19 cells with nicotine and/or cotinine treatments was assessed by MTT assay. Significant reduction in ARPE-19 cell viability was observed in 2 µM cotinine as well as 1 and 2 µM nicotine-cotinine mixture compared to the vehicle control group (0.1% DMSO). (B) Cell cycle analysis was evaluated by propidium iodide staining and flow cytometry analysis. There was no significant difference in sub-G1, G1, S or G2/M populations among the nicotine, cotinine or nicotine-cotinine mixture groups compared to the vehicle control group (0.1% DMSO). A: sub-G1 phase; B: G1 phase; C: S phase; D: G2/M phase. (C) RPE cell integrity was determined by immunofluorescence analysis of tight junction protein (ZO-1; green). The cell number, cell morphology and membrane organization of ZO-1 were similar in the nicotine and cotinine treatment groups with the control group. Scale bars: 50 µm.
