Fig. 2.

Estrogen treatment downregulates, whereas vit C upregulates NRF2. Real-time reverse transcription–PCR and western blot analyses of NRF2 expression in mammary tumors and in mammary tissues of rats treated with E2, vit C and vit C + E2 for 240 days (A), and in MCF-10A (B) and T47D cells (C) after E2 (10nM), vit C (1mM) and vit C + E2 treatment for 24h. mRNA expression data were normalized to cyclophilin as an internal control, whereas protein band intensities were quantified and normalized to α-tubulin. The bar graphs represent NRF2 mRNA and protein fold change (mean ± standard error of the mean) from at least five different replicates compared with respective control samples. ‘*’ indicates a P value <0.05 compared with controls.