Fig. 6.

Particulate guanylyl cyclase is expressed in pregnant myometrium. A, RT-PCR for pGC-C was performed on samples from pregnant and nonpregnant guinea pigs using primers designed from the human consensus sequence of pGC-C. β-Actin was amplified as an expression control (500 bp) and to rule out genomic contamination (750-bp amplicon not seen). Empty lanes (E) and the nontemplate control (NTC) confirmed the specificity of the PCR products shown for small INT, uterine DEC, isolated MYO, or FTU samples from pregnant and NP animals. B, Western blot using antibodies specific for GAPDH or the pGC revealed that pGC-C is expressed in pregnant, but not nonpregnant, animals. No increase in expression of pGC-C was seen with pregnancy between midgestation (34 days) and term. pGC-C in both INT-positive controls and myometrial samples were sequenced and identified as pGC-C. C, data for relative pGC-C expression in replicate experiments plotted as density measurements from Western blots with expression in the intestine set to 100%. Data are mean ± S.E.M. from 8 to 12 animals in experiments repeated three times. ***, p < 0.001.