Fig. 1.

Expression and regulation of Defb15 mRNA. a Real-time PCR analysis of Defb15 gene expression in various tissues, including the brain (B), heart (H), liver (Li), spleen (Sp), lung (Lu), kidney (K), stomach (St), intestine (I), muscle (M), testes (T), caput (Cp), corpus (Co), cauda (Cu), vas deferens (V), prostate (P), and seminal vesicle (Sv). b Relative amounts of Defb15 mRNA (real-time PCR) in rat epididymis at different developmental stages (n = 3). c Relative expression levels of Defb15 mRNA (real-time PCR) in the rat epididymis and the serum testosterone levels (expressed as nanomoles per liter) during androgen manipulation (n = 4–7). The black arrow indicates the time of androgen supplementation. GAPDH was used as internal control in a–c