Fig. 1

The expression pattern of RA signaling molecules in the vaginas. (A) The mRNA levels of Raldhs, Rars, Rxrs and Cyp26s in mouse vaginas at 5 weeks. The mRNA values of Raldh1, Rarα, Rxrα and Cyp26a1 were set as 1, and those of other gens were normalized accordingly. (n = 3 independent experiments). Bars indicate the mean ± SEM. (B) Immunofluorescence staining for RALDH2, RARα, RARγ, CYP26A1 and CYP26B1 (red) in the vaginas at 5 weeks. The small white boxes indicate the enlarged areas as shown in the following images. Downwards arrows indicate epithelial cells of spinous layers, while leftwards and rightwards arrows indicate the epithelial cells of cornified layers and the stromal region near basement membrane layers, respectively. Asterisks (*) indicate endothelial cells. The nuclei were counterstained by DAPI (blue). The cells in the dashed white line box are vaginal epithelial cells. Scale bar, 100 μm. VL, vaginal lumen; E, epithelium. (C) The mRNA levels of Raldh2, Raldh3, Rarα and Rarγ in the vaginas at 2, 15, 21 and 30 dpp. The mRNA values of 2 dpp group were set as 1, and those of other groups were normalized accordingly. (n = 3 independent experiments). Bars indicate the mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 vs. 2 dpp group. (D) The protein levels of RARα and RARγ in the vaginas at 2, 15, 21 and 30 dpp. GAPDH was used as a loading control. (n = 3 independent experiments). Bars indicate the mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 vs. 2 dpp group