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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: J Neuroendocrinol. 2009 May;21(5):506–517. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2826.2009.01860.x

Table 1.

Serum Hormone Levels of Young, Middle-aged, and Aged Ovariectomised Female Rats

Age Hormone treatment LH (ng/ml) Progesterone (ng/ml)
Young Vehicle/vehicle 17.71 ± 1.92 (n = 8) 8.97 ± 2.83 (n = 8)
Oestradiol/vehicle 8.37 ± 0.37 (n = 6) 10.51 ± 2.73 (n = 8)
Oestradiol/progesterone 8.00 ± 0.88 (n = 6) 15.48 ± 2.34 (n = 7)
Middle-aged Vehicle/vehicle 8.34 ± 0.35 (n = 7) 7.47 ± 1.02 (n = 7)
Oestradiol/vehicle 10.68 ± 1.58 (n = 8) 10.75 ± 2.17 (n = 8)
Oestradiol/progesterone 6.03 ± 0.24 (n = 7) 15.51 ± 2.17 (n = 8)
Aged Vehicle/vehicle 3.27 ± 0.56 (n = 6) 7.24 ± 1.36 (n = 10)
Oestradiol/vehicle 4.60 (n = 2) 11.23 ± 2.46 (n = 6)
Oestradiol/progesterone 3.28 ± 0.62 (n = 8) 15.52 ± 7.33 (n = 8)

Luteinising hormone (LH) values showed a main effect of age (P < 0.0001) and hormone treatment (P < 0.001), and a significant interaction (P < 0.001). Specifically, the young-vehicle/vehicle rats had significantly higher LH levels than all other groups (P < 0.005). Progesterone levels did not vary with age (P = 0.843), but were significantly different between steroid hormone treatments (P < 0.001), with levels significantly highest in the progesterone treated rats. Mean ± SEM are shown (except for the aged oestradiol/vehicle group for which serum samples of only two rats could be obtained for LH).