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. 2016 Jan 8;11(1):e0146138. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0146138

Fig 10. Effects of NF-κB/vimentin on DBP-induced testosterone secretion in vivo.

Fig 10

The pubertal male, Sprague-Dawley rats (10 per guoup) were orally administered DBP at the doses of 1 mg/kg·day for 30 days. (A) The serum testosterone level was determined in triplicate. (B) The methylation status of vimentin promoter regions was determined in triplicate by qMSP. (C) qRT-PCR analysis in triplicate of the expression of vimentin mRNA. (D) Western blots analysis and (E) relative protein levels of p-RelA, vimentin, DNMT1, DNMT3a, and DNMT3b. *p<0.05 and **p<0.01 compared with rats exposed to no DBP. (F-H) After Con-siRNA, RelA-siRNA, or vimentin-siRNA was injected into the interstitial tissue of testis, respectively, the rats were orally administered DBP as described above. (F) The serum testosterone level was determined in triplicate. The amounts of testosterone measured in control animals were 16.36±0.22 ng/ml. (G) Western blots analysis and (H) relative protein levels of p-RelA and vimentin. **p<0.01 compared with Con-siRNA group; ##p<0.01 compared with DBP plus Con-siRNA group; ΔΔp<0.01 compared with DBP plus vimentin-siRNA group.