Fig. 3.

E2 decreases Npy and Agrp expression in cultured hypothalamic explants. Coronal hypothalamic slices were prepared from adult C57BL/6 female mice killed 3–4 PM during the day of diestrus-proestrus. Each slice were cut into two identical halves and cultured. One half was treated with either 10 nM E2 (A) or 100 nM progesterone (B) and the other half was treated with the corresponding vehicle (water). After 24 h of treatment, RNA was extracted and semiquantitative RT-PCR was performed. Lepr, Npy, and Agrp expression was analyzed using β-actin as internal control. Gene expression in hormone treated explants was normalized to the vehicle values (broken line). **, P < 0.01 and ***, P < 0.001 by pair-wise comparison between hormone and vehicle treated samples. n = 5 for each treatment group.