Figure 3

Primary Cell Treatment with Nicotine, Nicotinic Receptor Agonist, and Antagonists. (a) Primary murine coronal suture cell proliferation increased with treatment with nicotinic receptor agonist Varenicline in combination with nicotine over both control and treatment with nicotine in combination with antagonists. Further, proliferation increased with combined treatment of specific antagonist Bupropion with nicotine over control. n = 7. (b) Apoptotic activity was not affected by treatment with nicotine, or nicotine in combination with agonist or antagonists. n = 7. (c–j) Target nicotinic receptor presence was not affected by treatment with nicotine alone or in combination with agonist or antagonists as determined by western blot. Western lanes divided to indicate removal of intervening lanes with agonist and antagonist treatment alone. See Supplementary Fig. 1 for full blots. n = 4. Data presented as mean ± standard error of the mean. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.