Table 3.

Effect of endothelium denudation (E⁻), N^G-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME), SOD and apocynin (Apo) on the maximal response (R_max) to phenylephrine

	SHAM	SHAM + DHEA	OVX	OVX + DHEA
E+	0.84 ± 0.03	0.86 ± 0.06	1.27 ± 0.07*	0.90 ± 0.04†
E−	2.69 ± 0.17‡	2.71 ± 0.25‡	2.54 ± 0.10‡	2.66 ± 0.16‡
l-NAME	2.53 ± 0.13‡	2.37 ± 0.07‡	2.33 ± 0.11‡	2.42 ± 0.10‡
SOD	0.84 ± 0.05	0.80 ± 0.02	0.90 ± 0.02‡	0.84 ± 0.04
Apo	0.85 ± 0.09	0.74 ± 0.09	0.88 ± 0.11‡	0.82 ± 0.07

The values are expressed as mean ± SEM (g of tension per mg of tissue). Two-way ANOVA:

^*P < 0.01 in comparison to SHAM

^†P < 0.01 in comparison to OVX

^‡P < 0.01 in comparison to E⁺ rings (endothelium intact).