Figure 5.

Ovariectomy prevents abnormal growth of Tsc2 KO uteri. Four-week-old WT and uterine-specific Tsc2 KO mice were OVX and treated with pellets of estradiol (E₂, 0.5 mg/pellet), progesterone (Pg, 25 mg/pellet), both, or neither for 8 weeks. (A) At 12 weeks of age, uterine gross morphology (upper left panel), weight (upper right panel), and microscopic morphology (lower panel) were analyzed. M, myometrium. Results portray the mean ± SEM of at least 3 mice per group per treatment. *, P < .05 relative to untreated OVX uterine-specific Tsc2 KO by Student t test. (B) Levels of Tsc2, GAPDH, and phosphorylated and total S6 were examined by immunoblot in OVX WT and KO uteri (left). Treatments are indicated. Quantification by densitometry of phosphorylated S6/total S6 is shown on the right. The y-axis is pS6/tS6 of KO relative to WT uteri for each condition. Intact represents mice that never received OVX. *, P < .05 relative to WT pairs by Student t test, n ≥ 3 for each condition. (C) Immunohistochemistry for phosphorylated S6 was performed using sections from the indicated Tsc2 KO uteri.