Table 1.

Weight and bile flow change in rats following 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE) and ursodeoxycholate (UDCA) treatment.

Group	Treatment	Weight Change (%) (4)	Bile Flow (mL/min) (4)
Control	Vehicles only administration (1)	0.48 ± 2.2	10.5 ± 2.3
EE (cholestasis)	sc injection of EE (2)	−12.8 ± 2.4 *	3.7 ± 0.8 *
UDCA + EE/UDCA	Pretreatment with UDCA, followed by sc injection of EE and oral administration of UDCA (3)	−15.2 ± 5.0 *	8.3 ± 1.7 #

⁽¹⁾ Rats were administered with a daily subcutaneous (sc) injection of propylene glycol at 10 a.m. for 5 consecutive days (1 mL/kg), followed by an oral administration of 1% (w/v) carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) suspension in tap water tid (9 a.m., 3 p.m. and 9 p.m.) at 2 mL/kg daily for subsequent 5 days. ⁽²⁾ Rats were received a daily sc injection of propylene glycol solution of EE at 10 a.m. for 5 consecutive days at a dose of 10 mg/mL/kg. CMC suspension (1%, w/v) without UDCA was then oral administered (2 mL/kg daily) tid (9 a.m., 3 p.m. and 9 p.m.) for subsequent 5 days. ⁽³⁾ Rats were oral administered with 1% (w/v) CMC suspension of UDCA tid (9 a.m., 3 p.m. and 9 p.m.) for 5 days at a daily UDCA dose of 100 mg/2 mL/kg, followed by a concomitant administration of EE and UDCA for another 5 days according to the same methods in (2). This group was designated to represent the ‘UDCA-treated group.’ ⁽⁴⁾ Data were expressed as mean ± SD from three different rats per group. * p < 0.05, significant compared with control group by student’s t-test. ^# p < 0.05, significant compared with EE group by student’s t-test.