Greater prenatal PAH exposure was associated with increased adipocyte size in the offspring.

(A) Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining of representative of interscapular BAT and inguinal WAT are shown. (B) Distribution of adipocyte cell surface area of inguinal WAT (upper panel) and interscapular BAT (bottom panel) following prenatal PAH over-exposure vs control exposure. A rightward shift is evident following PAH exposure in WAT and BAT. Cross-sectional areas were expressed as mm2. Because each millimeter of the digital image equaled ∼50 µm, the calculated areas were multiplied by a conversion factor of 2,500 (502) to determine the cross-sectional area of the adipocytes in µm2. Values less than 100 µm2 were assumed to represent artifacts from the image-conversion process and were excluded from analysis. (C) Mean surface area of adipocytes. Approximately 30 cells were measured for each mouse, averaged and compared between experimental groups. In both inguinal WAT and BAT the mean cell size of PAH was larger than that of control. Mann Whitney U: * p<0.05, ** p<0.01 vs. the control group. M =  male; F =  female.