Effect of Maternal Marginal Zinc Deficiency on Development, Redox Status, and Gene Expression Related to Oxidation and Apoptosis in an Avian Embryo Model

Figure 5

Effects of maternal dietary Zn levels on of (a, b) antioxidant genes (MT1, GPx, CAT, and CuZnSOD) and antiapoptotic gene (BCL2, BAK1, BAX, Caspase-9, and COX2) mRNA expressions as well as (c) signaling AKT1 and ERK1 protein expressions in the embryonic liver. (d) Representative immunoblots of the indicated proteins were listed. The GAPDH mRNA expression was used to normalize the expressions of the targeted genes. The GAPDH protein expression was selected to normalize target protein expressions. Means with different letters (a and b) differ significantly (). Mean represented the average value of 6 replicates (). MZD: maternal Zn-deficient group (0 mg Zn/kg diet); MZA: maternal Zn-adequate group (60 mg Zn/kg diet); MZH: maternal Zn-high group (120 mg Zn/kg diet); MT1: metallothionein 1; GPx: glutathione peroxidase; CAT: catalase; CuZnSOD: copper-zinc superoxide dismutase; BCL2: B-cell lymphoma-2; BAK1: BCL2 antagonist/killer 1; BAX: BCL2-associated X protein; COX2: cyclooxygenase-2.

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