Immunohistochemical analysis of placental tissues for <i>in vivo</i> evidence of DNA damage.

<p>Placental tissues were collected from women with preeclampsia [PE] [<b><i>A–D</i></b>] and gestational age-matched normotensive controls (n = 10 for each) [<b><i>E–H</i></b>]. Tissues were prepared and labeled with antibodies against γH2AX (a biomarker of DNA damage [<b><i>A,E</i></b>]), cytokeratin 7 (CK-7) (which stains trophoblast cells, see arrows [<b><i>B,F</i></b>]), and vimentin (which stains decidual cells, see arrow heads [<b><i>C,G</i></b>]) as described in the <i>Materials and Methods</i>. Negative controls [<b><i>D,H</i></b>] included saline in place of first antibody. Representative serial tissue sections are shown. γH2AX labeling (see arrow heads in <b><i>A</i></b>) was more intense in PE tissues than normotensive controls. The intensity of staining in decidua cells was quantified using the H-SCORE system (measured in relative staining intensity) and the data analyzed using GraphPad Prism software. Data are mean±SEM from a minimum of 3 separate experiments performed in triplicate; **<i>P</i><0.001[<b><i>I</i></b>].