Figure 3.

NVI mice display evidence of increased output from the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. (A) Total corticosterone measured in the serum of NVI mice (n = 7) at sacrifice was significantly higher than that of naive mice (n = 9). (B) Representative Western blots are shown for CRF₁ and corresponding GAPDH protein expression with bands at 55 and 35 kD, respectively, in the vagina of naive and NVI mice. CRF₁ protein expression was significantly increased in vagina from NVI mice (n = 4) compared with naive mice (n = 4). Mast cells, and evidence of degranulation, were identified by acidified toluidine blue staining in sections of vagina from naive (n = 3; C and D) and NVI mice (n = 3; E and F). High-magnification photomicrographs show examples of intact mast cells (D) and degranulated mast cells with extruded granules (F) in naive and NVI vagina, respectively. (G) The percentage of mast cells that exhibited evidence of extruded granules was significantly higher in NVI vagina than naive vagina. *, ***P < 0.05, 0.001 vs naive; Student t test. Scale bars equal 100 μm (C and E) and 10 μm (D and F).