The effects of nicotine exposure on neural differentiation in mouse embryonic stem cells

Exposure to many biological, physical and chemical agents in our daily life threatens our health. This exposure begins in our early life stages like fetal period that is the most important period in our lives. Nicotine is one of these chemical agents. It has been suggested that exposure to nicotine during fetal development has harmful effects for both mother and fetus, but studies on this subject need to be increased in order to understand these effects at the cellular level. In this thesis, we aimed to examine the effects of nicotine exposure during the development process. For this purpose, we differentiated mouse embryonic stem cells by exposing them to nicotine in vitro. We looked at Gfap, Nestin, O4, β-3 Tubulin and Map2 proteins by immunohistochemical staining (IHC) by harvesting cells in culture during and at the end of differentiation. We looked at the expressions of NEUROG2, RBFOX3, TUBB3, GSK3B and PAX6 genes with Real Time PCR analysis. At the end of our study; It was observed that gene expressions were changed in our group exposed to nicotine, and there was a decrease in gene expressions in the nicotine-exposed group compared to the control group. In IHC results, it was observed that Map2, β-3 Tubulin and O4 expressions were decreased in nicotine groups compared to non-nicotine groups, and Gfap and Nestin decreased on days other than 21 days.