Figure 3.

Effect of dietary curcumin supplement on testosterone concentration and testicular steroidogenic gene expressions in Hu sheep in summer. Sheep in Con, Cur1, and Cur2 groups were fed basal diets supplemented with 0 mg, 450 mg, and 900 mg curcumin (per sheep) daily for 35 days, respectively. Testes weight normalized to body weight (a). Plasma testosterone concentration (b) was detected by ELISA (n = 12). Testicular star mRNA (c) and hsd3b mRNA (d) expressions were analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR (n = 4), the y-axis scale is folded relative to actb. Data are shown as means ± SEM. Bars with different letters denote significant differences (p < 0.05). T, testosterone; star, steroidogenic acute regulatory protein; hsd3b, 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase; actb, β-Actin.