Fig. 2

Effect of estradiol on GnRH, kisspeptin, and NKB expression in placental cells. Primary cultures of rat placental cells were cultured in the presence or absence (control) of 1 μM or 10 μM estradiol (E2) for 24 h. Then, GnRH (a), kisspeptin (b), and NKB (c) mRNA levels were measured by quantitative real-time PCR after mRNA extraction and reverse transcription. Samples for each experimental group were run in duplicate and normalized to GAPDH mRNA levels as a housekeeping gene. Results are expressed as fold stimulation over the unstimulated group/control. Values are the mean ± SEM of fold stimulation taken from independent experiments. **P < 0.01, *P < 0.05 vs. control