Figure 4
Sex steroid levels in placenta and cord plasma, and aromatase gene and protein expression. Testosterone (T) levels and estradiol-17-beta/testosterone (E2/T) ratio in cord plasma (A,B) and placenta (C,D) are presented as scatter plots with median. (E) RT-qPCR data for CYP19A1(aromatase) gene expression for the female placentas of the control group (Con-F) are assigned to an arbitrary value of 100% and values for all other analyzed groups (Con-M, N3-F, and N3-M) were depicted relative to Con-F. Data are presented as mean relative gene expression in % + the 95% confidence interval. (F) Representive data from Western blot analyses for CYP19A1 (51 kDa) and GAPDH (36 kDa) are shown. GAPDH was used for normalization. (G) CYP19A1 protein expression data are summarized in a scatter blot with median. Con-F samples are assigned to an arbitrary value of 100% and all other analyzed groups were depicted relative to Con-F. Statistical significance was calculated by parametric two-way ANOVA for RT-qPCR data and non-parametric two-way ANOVA on ranks for all other data. Holm-Sidak post-hoc test was used for group comparisons. Statistically significant effects of specific factors were marked as follows. #, offspring sex; *, n-3 LCPUFA treatment; ‡, interactions. #, * or ‡, P < 0.05; # # or * * P < 0.01. Trends (P < 0.1 – 0.05) are shown as the actual P value. Con-F and Con-M, female and male offspring in the control group, respectively; N3-F and N3-M, female and male offspring in the n-3 LCPUFA intervention group, respectively. Number of analyzed placentas per group: Con-F, n = 11; Con-M, n = 9; N3-F, n = 10, and N3-M, n = 11. Number of analyzed cord plasma samples per group: Con-F, n = 8; Con-M, n = 7; N3-F, n = 9; N3-M, n = 9.