Figure 1.

Effects of anandamide and estrogen treatments on cardiac activity and expression of the NOS enzyme in SO and OVX animals. (a) Cardiac NOS activity (expressed as pmol/min/mg protein); results are shown as means ± S.E.M. n = 6–8; (b) Representative image of cardiac eNOS expression (expressed as % changes, where SO = 100%); results are shown as means ± S.E.M. n = 5–9; * p < 0.05: statistical significance relative to the SO group, # p < 0.05: statistical significance relative to the OVX group. SO = sham operation, OVX = surgical ovariectomy, AEA = anandamide, E₂ = estrogen, NOS = nitric oxide synthase, eNOS = endothelial nitric oxide synthase.