Table 3.

The frequency of immunoglobulin-switched mature B cells (B220^high μ⁻) in bone marrow after E₂ treatment

	% B220high μ− bone marrow cells
	Controls	30 μg E2/kg
Wild-type mice
ERα+ ERβ+	3·2 ± 0·4	18·6 ± 3·7*
BERKO mice
ERα+ ERβ−	2·9 ± 0·6	13·1 ± 1·2**
ERKO mice
ERα− ERβ+	3·4 ± 0·5	6·7 ± 0·9
DERKO mice
ERα− ERβ−	4·2 ± 0·3	5·0 ± 0·6
anova ERα		†††
anova ERβ		ns

Male mice of all four ER genotypes were castrated and treated for 2·5 weeks with subcutaneous doses of E₂ or olive oil as controls. Frequency of B220⁺ cells of B220^high μ⁻ phenotype was obtained by use of flow cytometry. All groups consisted of four to six mice. Mean ±SEM.

^*P < 0·05.

^**P < 0·01 (Mann–Whitney: controls versus E₂).

^†††P < 0·001 (anova: ERα⁺ versus ERα⁻).

ns, not significant.