Figure 2

Effects of MitoQ-NPs on the rat in vivo. (a) Birth-weight (top left; n = 6 litters), placenta weight (top right; n = 6 litters) and body weight at P30 (bottom; n = 24 individuals) of offspring exposed to maternal normoxia, M(21%), or hypoxia, M(11%), preceded by maternal administration of saline or MitoQ-NPs. (b) Confocal images of rat placental labyrinth, fetal cortex and fetal liver at GD16 after maternal injection with saline or fluorescent NPs (green), counterstained with DAPI (blue), scale bar = 100 μm. (c) Light micrographs showing the gross histology (H&E stain) of the placental labyrinth at GD20 following in vivo normoxia or hypoxia with maternal saline or MitoQ-NP injection (scale bar = 2 μm). (d) Analysis of total area per field of view (top) and maximum diameter (bottom) of placental blood vessels after gestational hypoxia combined with maternal injection of saline or MitoQ-NPs (n = 3 placenta per condition, each from a different dam). (e) Levels of fluorescent dichlorofluorescein (DCF) as a measure of reactive oxygen species and thus oxidative stress in fetal brain (left, top) and liver (middle, top), maternal brain (left, bottom) and liver (middle, bottom) and placenta (right) after exposure to altered oxygen in vivo, with or without maternal MitoQ-NP injection (biological replicates: fetal and placental samples, n = 6; maternal samples, n = 3). Additional significant differences for ‘placenta’ graph: M(21%) + saline vs M(11%) + MitoQ-NP, p < 0.05; M(21%) + MitoQ-NP vs M(11%) + saline, p < 0.001. *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001 as determined by post-hoc testing following ANOVA.