Figure 2.

Effects of 17β-estradiol on APAP-induced hepatotoxicity, blood GPx3 mRNA expression, and plasma GPx activity in male mice. Hepatotoxicity was determined by measuring the serum activities of (A) AST and (B) ALT at 18 h after oral administration of APAP (500 mg/kg) to male mice with and without 17β-estradiol (17β-E at 0.2 mg/kg, i.p.) pretreatment. (C) Blood GPx3 mRNA expression, and (D) plasma GPx activity were measured as described in the 'Materials and methods' section. Data are expressed as means ± SEM. ^*P<0.05, ^**P<0.01 compared to APAP alone or control group (n=40 for each mouse group). APAP, acetaminophen; AST, aspartate aminotransferase; ALT, alanine aminotransferase; i.p., intraperitoneal.