Figures & data
Figure 1. Effect of inhaled vanadium on percentage of Ki-67 immunopositive lymphocytes in male mice. Representative figures are presented. (A) Control mouse spleen shows slight signal to Ki67, mainly in the nucleus. Ki-67 signal increases with exposure time – after 1, 4, 8 and 12 weeks of exposure – as shown in, respectively (B, C, D and E). The signal in exposed groups is apparent both in the nucleus and cytoplasm. (F) The increase in lymphoproliferation was significant after 4 weeks and then until the end of exposure (*p < 0.05 ANOVA, Tukey’s post-hoc test).
Figure 2. Effect of inhaled vanadium on the percentage of Ki67 immunopositive lymphocytes in female mice. Representative figures are presented. (A) Control mouse spleen shows Ki-67 nuclear signal in a low percentage of lymphocytes. (B) After 1 week of exposure, the percentage of Ki-67+ lymphocytes significatively increased (compared to control) After 4, 8 and 12 weeks of exposures, the percentage of immunopositives lymphocytes did not significantly increase (C, D, E and F) (*p < 0.05 ANOVA, Tukey’s post-hoc test). Ki-67 signal was only seen in nuclear areas in both control and exposed mice.
Figure 3. Differences between nuclear and cytoplasmic Ki-67 signal in lymphocytes from male and female mice. (A) Lymphocytes from exposed male mice (4 week exposure) show a cytoplasmic (arrowhead) positive signal (ochre color) to Ki-67, while the nucleus (purple) from these cells were negative for this marker. (B) Lymphocyte from exposed female mice (4 week exposure) shows a positive nuclear staining to Ki-67 (arrowhead) while the cytoplasm was clearly negative for the marker.
Figure 4. Lymphoproliferative effect of V inhalation in male vs female mice. Spleens from control female (F) mice had a significantly higher percentage of proliferative lymphocytes compared to control male (M) mice. Male mice exhibited a significant increase in spleen lymphoproliferation from week 4 of exposure until the end of the experiment. In comparison, female (F) mice only presented a significant increased in proliferation after 1 week of V exposure. (*p < 0.05 ANOVA, Holm-Sídák’s post hoc test).
