Fig. 5

The Effects of BaP and vitamin E on Pax3 gene expression in mouse embryos. a Whole mount in situ hybridization of Pax3 in E9.5 embryos. In control embryos, Pax3 mRNA was detected in the dorsal neural tube and somites as expected, while less gene expression was seen in the forebrain and midbrain of embryos exposed to BaP. The dashed lines on the whole mount panels indicate the orientation of respective sections. b Relative quantitative real-time PCR of Pax3 mRNA from E10.5 embryos exposed to BaP and co-supplemented with vitamin E. Values were normalized against Gapdh and represented as mean ± SE (n = 5–8). *P < 0.05, compared with control group. fb forebrain, mb midbrain, hb hindbrain, NT neuroepithelium, VE vitamin E