Fig. 9.

The effect of pectinase-treated Panax ginseng extract on the testicular sex hormone receptor protein expression level in young and aged rats. The protocol described in the Materials and methods section 2.4, 2.5 was followed. The protein expression level of the androgen receptor (AR), follicle-stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR), and luteinizing hormone receptor (LHR) in rat testicular tissue was analyzed using western blotting. (A) Tissue lysates from the indicated groups were immunoblotted with specific antibodies against AR, FSHR, and LHR. Beta-actin was used as the internal control. (B–D) The protein band intensity of AR, LHR, and FSHR, respectively, normalized to that of β-actin is shown. The data are expressed as the mean ± standard deviation (n = 6). * p < 0.01 compared with the young control rat group. ** p < 0.05 compared with the aged rat control group. *** p < 0.01 compared with the aged rat control group as determined with Student t-test and one way analysis of variance using GraphPad Prism version 4.0 for Windows. AC, aged rat control group; AR, androgen receptor; FSHR, follicle-stimulating hormone receptor; GINST, pectinase-treated Panax ginseng extract; GINST-AC, GINST-treated (200 mg/kg body weight) aged rat group; LHR, luteinizing hormone receptor; YC, young control rat group.