Perinatal exposure to BPA increases hepatocyte apoptosis of rat offspring.

(A) Representative images of the TUNEL assay on liver tissue of the control and BPA-treated offspring at 3, 15 and 21 weeks. The TUNEL positive cells increased in the liver of BPA-treated offspring at 21 weeks (magnification, 400×). (B) Percentages of apoptotic cells in the livers from the control group and BPA-treated offspring. Percentages of apoptotic cells were quantified by counting TUNEL-positive cells in 1000 cells in a selected microscopic field per liver section. Data are means ± S.E.M. (n = 6 rats per group; only 1 offspring was selected per litter). *P<0.05 compared with controls. (C) Representative images of Hoechst 33258-stained sections of liver tissue from rats of respective group (magnification, 400×).