FIG. 4.

Effect of vaginal estrogen and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on gene expression of ERα (A) or progesterone receptor (PR) (B) in the vaginal stroma before or after injury. Relative gene expression was determined by quantitative PCR in vaginal stroma from ovariectomized rats before injury (CTL) or 1 and 3 weeks after injury treated with placebo cream/placebo injection (Placebo, solid bar), estrogen cream/placebo injection (E, gray bar, n = 9), placebo cream/MSC injection (MSC, lined bar), or estrogen cream + MSC (E + MSC, dotted bar). Data represent mean ± SEM of 7-9 animals in each group. ^∗P < 0.05 compared with uninjured controls, analysis of variance with Dunn posthoc testing. ERα, estrogen receptor alpha; CTL, control; Veh, vehicle.