Skip to main content
Fig. 2 | Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology

Fig. 2

From: Analysis of 17β-estradiol (E2) role in the regulation of corpus luteum function in pregnant rats: Involvement of IGFBP5 in the E2-mediated actions

Fig. 2

Effects of luteal E2 inhibition and replacement of E2 on serum P4, CL weight, aromatase expression, cyclin D1, ki67 and luteal lipid droplets content. Beginning on day 12, pregnant rats received daily oral administration of AI (1 mg/kg BW) and 5 μg E2 (am and pm), s.c. for four days. CL tissues collected on day 16 of pregnancy were subjected to microtome and cryosectioning. a Circulating mean serum P4 concentrations during different treatments (n = 4 animals/time point, one-way ANOVA, ***P <0.001). b Weight of CL during different treatments with representative photo is shown for AI and AI+E2 treatments. Each bar represents mean±SEM, n = 12 CL/time point, one-way ANOVA, *** P <0.001. Protein levels of aromatase (c) and cyclin D1 (d). Protein lysate (50 μg) prepared from CL tissue from different treatments were resolved on 10–12 % SDS PAGE, transferred onto PVDF membrane and immunoblot analysis was performed using antibodies against aromatase, cyclin D1 and β-actin. A representative immunoblot for each antibody probed is shown. The immunoblot probed with β-actin antibody was used as loading control for each lane. Each bar represents the fold change (mean±SEM; n = 4 animals/time point) with respect to day 16 VEH treated CL, relative to intensity of β-actin for each treatment (one-way ANOVA, *** P <0.001, ** P <0.01). e Photomicrographs represent ki67 immunostaining of CL tissue sections post different treatments. Samples were counter stained with haematoxylin, and images taken at a magnification of 20×. For reference, an image for the negative control is shown. f Representative image of cryosectioned CL tissue sections for oil red O staining across different treatments. Arrow heads indicate cells stained for lipid content

Back to article page