Figure 5.
Gap junction inhibitors block biochemical differentiation of ESC. Prolactin secretion as detected by ELISA and expressed as ng/106 cells, was used as an indicator of ESC decidualization. ESC cultured for 8 days in the absence of hormones (cont.) had very low levels of prolactin production, which were significantly upregulated in the presence of E/P/c. (A) AGA inhibited both basal and E/P/c-stimulated prolactin secretion (*P<0.05, t-test), whereas the non-inhibitory glycoside, glycyrrhizic acid (GA), had no effects on basal or stimulated prolactin secretion. The inset shows prolactin in the supernatants as detected by Western blotting. The latter assay was less sensitive than the ELISA but shows similar trends. The figure reflects a selected representative experiment.
(B) OcOH also reduced control and E/P/c-stimulated prolactin secretion, whereas an equimolar concentration of EtOH had no effect (*P<0.05, t-test). The figure reflects a selected representative experiment.