Figure 4.

Ability of the RT-PCR assay to detect small differences in genes identified by the Affymetrix microarray. The expression of three genes was measured for each sample (n = 10 rats per acute hippocampus group) and normalized to the GAPDH expression for that sample to account for variations in efficiency of the RT reaction. The normalized expression values (mean ± SEM × 10³) of each of the three genes differed significantly (p < 0.01; t test) between the sham and ECS-treated rats in the parent material and at the 0.75×, 0.5×, and 0.25× dilutions, except for the normalized rat heart EST189184 gene at the greatest dilution and GAPDH at all dilutions. The normalized expression values of each gene also decreased (p < 0.05; t test) at each dilution for all four genes compared with the one preceding it for both the sham and ECS groups, except for neuropilin at the 0.5× dilution.