Figure 4. Sex biased transcripts are restricted to the ventrolateral VMH.

a, Tac1 and Rprm transcripts in the female VMHvl (dashed box). Increased magnification of the VMHvl shows cells expressing Rprm alone (magenta arrowheads), Tac1 alone (yellow arrowheads), or both (cyan arrowheads). b, Median pixel intensity for Tac1 and Rprm transcripts in individual cells of the VMHvl (n = 560 cells from 3 female mice) showing 58.6% of cells express only Rprm, 24.8% express only Tac1, and 16.6% express both Rprm and Tac1. c, Tac1 (magenta) together with ERα immunoreactivity (yellow) in the c, female or f, male VMHvl. i, Median pixel intensity for ERα and Tac1 co-expression in cells from the VMHvl of females (n = 2944 cells from 5 mice) or males (n = 2330 cells from 6 mice). In females, 58.8% of Tac1+ cells also express ERα. Relatively limited expression of ERα is observed in the VMHvl of adult males. d, Rprm transcripts (magenta) together with ERα immunoreactivity (yellow) in the VMHvl of females or g, males. j, Median pixel intensity for ERα and Rprm in VMHvl cells from females (n = 2751 cells from 4 mice) and males (n = 1163 cells from 4 mice). In females, 70.3% of Rprm+ cells also express ERα. Limited expression of Rprm or ERα is observed in males. e, Pdyn (magenta) transcripts with ERα immunoreactivity (yellow) in the VMHvl of males or h, females. k, Quantification of ERα and Pdyn in VMHvl sections from females (n = 2051 cells from 5 mice) and males (n = 3105 cells from 6 mice). Limited (8.9% in females, 17.7% in males) co-expression of ERα and Pdyn is observed, as males express high levels of Pdyn and low levels of ERα whereas females express low levels of Pdyn and high levels of ERα. Dashed lines in b, i-k indicate positive/negative cutoffs (see Experimental Procedures). Percentages were determined from the total number of cells that express either ERα or the gene of interest or both (pie chart insets). Scalebars = 100μm.