Fig. 4.

The effect of pectinase-treated Panax ginseng extract on the sex hormone receptor mRNA expression level in hydrogen peroxide-exposed GC-2 cells. The protocol described in the Materials and methods section 2.6 was followed. The mRNA expression level of the androgen receptor, follicle-stimulating hormone receptor, and luteinizing hormone receptor is shown. (A) glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase was used as an internal control. (B) The polymerase chain reaction band intensity of androgen receptor, (C) follicle-stimulating hormone receptor, and (D) luteinizing hormone receptor was analyzed using the ImageJ 1.410 software package and was normalized to that of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase. The data are expressed as the mean ± standard deviation (n = 6). * p < 0.01 compared with the control cells. ** p < 0.05. *** p < 0.01 compared with the H₂O₂-exposed cells as determined the by Student's t-test and one-way ANOVA using GraphPad Prism version 4.0 for Windows. AR, androgen receptor; FSHR, follicle-stimulating hormone receptor; GAPDH, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase; GINST, pectinase-treated Panax ginseng extract; LHR, luteinizing hormone receptor.