Figure 2. Differential expression of candidate genes among groups.

SYBR Green-based quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used to test the relative mRNA levels of candidate genes. The mRNA expression data were analyzed by Student’s t-test. Data are illustrated as box plots. The upper and lower edges of each box represent the 75th and 25th percentiles, respectively. The lines inside the boxes represent the median.