Figure 3.

17β-Estradiol delays neuronal cell death of DRG in cultures after NGF withdrawal. (A) DRG cells were prepared from P4 rats and cultured with (□) or without NGF in the absence (○) or presence of 1 nM 17β-estradiol (■). Process-bearing neurons were counted each day, and the numbers were normalized with respect to day 0. The figure shows one typical experiment that was repeated three times with comparable results. Bar graph represents mean ± SEM. ∗∗, P ≤ 0.002 for estrogen vs. control; ●●●, P ≤ 0.001 for NGF vs. control; +++, P ≤ 0.001 for NGF vs. estrogen; +, P ≤ 0.05 for NGF vs. estrogen. (B) MTT test was done after 2 days in culture. Values represent mean ± SEM. Statistical significance is as in A.