Figure 1.
Profile of different estrogen metabolites in the culture media from endometrial cells treated with E2 (10 nm) with or without with TNF-α (5 ng/ml). The cells were grown in serum-free media and treated for 48 h. The media were collected to quantify different estrogen/estrogen metabolites by HPLC-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry2. The data were normalized against the protein concentration. Data are the means ± sem of three replicates. *, Significantly different (P < 0.05) compared with cells treated with E2 alone. 3-ME1, 3-methoxyestrone; 2-ME1, 2-methoxyestrone; 4-ME2, 4-methoxyestradiol.