Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 23 pp 23478—23496

Figure 4. Oxidative burst, HIF-1α accumulation, TGF-β/Smad3 pathway and Tim-3/galectin-9 levels are highly upregulated in primary human embryonic cells at early pregnancy stages. Primary human embryonic cells, obtained from amniotic fluid (Am, around 20 - 25 weeks of pregnancy) and chorion (Ch, around 13 weeks of pregnancy), were subjected to measurement of xanthine oxidase and NADPH oxidase activities as well as TBRS levels (A). HIF-1α accumulation (B), secreted TGF-β and cell-associated phospho-S423/S425-Smad3 levels were also analysed (C), as well as levels of cell-associated and secreted Tim-3 (D) and galectin-9 (E). Images are from one experiment representative of seven, which gave similar results. Data are shown as mean values ± SEM of seven independent experiments. * - p < 0.05 vs amniotic cells.