Fig. 3.

Sex-dependent hormonal regulation of nuclear HNF-4α (A) and nuclear PXR (B) protein levels in hepatocytes derived from adult men and women. The cells were exposed to either continuous dexamethasone alone (DEX), continuous GH alone, or both hormones (DEX+GH) for 5 d in culture, after which the hepatocytes were harvested and analyzed. Each data point is a mean ± sd for cells from six men, all treatments except DEX+GH, in which n = 5; six women, all treatments. *, P < 0.01 compares with the GH alone treatment of the same sex; †, P < 0.01 compares women with men exposed to the same hormone treatment. Representative immunoblots of HNF-4α and PXR and their respective loading controls (p97) are presented in the figure. Positive controls (HNF-4α and PXR) were repeatedly run on all blots for procedural integrity (data not shown).