Figure 7. Effect of androgen withdrawal and readministration on the expression of SRC1, SRC2, SRC3, p300 and CBP in androgen-responsive tissues in vivo.

Adult Wistar rats were castrated (groups II and III) or sham-operated (group I). Animals were treated with testosterone and testosterone propionate (group III) or vehicle (groups I and II) for 4 days. Thereafter, animals were sacrificed and ventral prostates and lacrimal glands were excised. Groups consisted of 4 animals. A. Effect of treatment on the weight of the ventral prostate tissues (in gram). B. For each animal, protein extracts were made from the ventral prostate (top panel) and lacrimal gland (bottom panel). Equal amounts of protein were analyzed by Western blotting using antibodies directed against SRC1, SRC2, SRC3 and CBP. To assess potential inter-sample loading differences, blots were stripped and reprobed with an antibody recognizing beta-actin (b-act). To further evaluate protein loading, blotting membranes were subjected to Ponceau S staining (data not shown). C. Matching RNA samples from lacrimal glands were analyzed by real time RT-PCR using primers amplifying rodent SRC1, SRC2, SRC3, CBP and p300 mRNA sequences. mRNA levels were normalized with the values obtained from rat GAPDH. Values are expressed as relative expression levels, taking the value obtained from one of the animals from group I as 1. Columns, means of values obtained from three independent biological replicates; bars, SEM.