Cancer during pregnancy alters the activity of rat placenta and enhances the expression of cleaved PARP, cytochrome-c and caspase 3

Table 1 Placental immunohistochemical analysis of cleaved PARP, caspase-3 and cytosolic cytochrome-c (number of positive cells counted) and the ratios of cleaved PARP, caspase-3 and cytosolic cytochrome-c positive cells in the spongy trophoblast layer of tumour-bearing rats or rats injected with ascitic fluid compared to control rats at different stages of pregnancy (16^th, 19^th and 21^st days). Polyclonal antibodies against PARP, caspase-3 and cytochrome-c (all from Santa Cruz Biotechnology; anti PARP and anti-cytochrome-c diluted 1:100; anti-caspase diluted 1:250) were detected with a secondary biotinylated anti-goat antibody (diluted 1:500) and reacted with DAB in the presence of H₂O₂. The cells were counted using Image ProPlus software.

Number of positive cells counted				Ratio between treated and control groups
	Cleaved PARP	Caspase-3	Cytosolic cytochrome-c		Cleaved PARP	Caspase-3	Cytosolic cytochrome-c
C16	43.1 ± 7.1^a	3.7 ± 0.4^a	3.4 ± 0.3^a
W16	136.7 ± 12.2^b	16.0 ± 1.4^c	4.7 ± 0.3^a	W16/C16	2.89 ± 0.30^a	3.02 ± 0.37^a	1.52 ± 0.11^a
A16	71.7 ± 9.2^c	7.9 ± 0.4^c	6.7 ± 0.4^c	A16/C16	1.41 ± 0.13^b	2.90 ± 0.35^a	2.54 ± 0.25^b
C19	48.0 ± 5.9^a	1.3 ± 0.2^b	4.9 ± 0.3^a
W19	149.2 ± 20.9^b	9.3 ± 0.7^c	13.3 ± 0.7^b	W19/C19	3.40 ± 0.23^a	7.56 ± 0.74^b	3.03 ± 0.20^b
A19	115.9 ± 9.5^b	4.6 ± 0.2^a	15.4 ± 0.4^d	A19/C19	3.00 ± 0.30^a	3.84 ± 0.34^a	3.35 ± 0.21^b
C21	54.8 ± 7.6^a	2.5 ± 0.3^a	4.8 ± 0.3^a
W21	148.0 ± 16.9^b	7.3 ± 0.7^c	12.7 ± 0.6^b	W21/C21	2.99 ± 0.54^a	2.50 ± 0.70^a	3.00 ± 0.22^b
A21	73.4 ± 11.7^c	7.2 ± 0.4^c	10.2 ± 0.6^b	A21/C21	1.67 ± 0.36^b	2.43 ± 0.50^a	2.78 ± 0.29^b

Groups: control (C), tumour-bearing (W) and ascitic fluid-injected (A) rats. Twenty areas (300 μm² each) were examined in one tissue section each from at least six rats per group. The cells were counted using Image ProPlus software. The results are expressed asthe mean ± SEM. Different superscript letters indicate significant differences within each column (P < 0.05).