Fig. 2

Changes in the α₂-adrenergic receptor levels in the 22-day pregnant rat myometrium after progesterone pretreatment. The α₂-adrenergic receptor and β-actin Western blot products for α_2A- (b), α_2B- (d) and α_2C-adrenergic receptors (f). The 70, 62 and 60 kDa proteins relate to the α_2AR-, α_2B- and α_2C- adrenergic receptors and β-actin, respectively. The antibody binding was expressed as optical density (OD) data (a) for α_2A-_, (c) for α_2B-and (e) for α_2C-adrenergic receptors. The y axis shows the ratio of α₂-adrenergic receptors/β-actin protein optical densities. The statistical analyses were carried out with the two-tailed unpaired t-test. ^* p < 0.05; ^** p < 0.01