Table 4.

Effects of zearalenone (ZEA) on the mRNA and protein relative expression, and the integrated optical density (IOD) of growth hormone (GH), growth hormone receptor (GHR), and heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) in the ovary of post-weaning gilts.

Items	Control	ZEA0.5	ZEA1.0	ZEA1.5	SEM	P-values
						Treatment	Linear
mRNA expression
GH	1.13b	1.77a	1.10b	0.55c	0.116	<0.001	0.019
GHR	0.63c	1.39b	1.67a	0.74c	0.098	<0.001	0.492
Hsp70	0.72b	1.01b	1.98a	0.95b	0.123	<0.001	0.133
Protein expression
GH	1.00b	1.77a	0.97b	0.56c	0.135	<0.001	0.080
GHR	1.00c	1.68b	2.11a	1.24c	0.132	<0.001	0.357
Hsp70	1.00d	1.74b	2.11a	1.38c	0.130	<0.001	0.209
IOD (×103)
GH	27.32ab	29.91a	27.45ab	24.28b	0.638	0.016	0.002
GHR	25.63c	40.63b	48.05a	27.02c	1.590	<0.001	0.422
Hsp70	19.93c	30.96b	40.04a	30.55b	1.126	<0.001	<0.001

Control, ZEA0.5, ZEA1.0, and ZEA1.5 represent the control diet with an addition of 0, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 mg kg⁻¹ ZEA, and with analyzed ZEA concentrations of 0, 0.52 ± 0.07, 1.04 ± 0.03, and 1.51 ± 0.13 mg kg⁻¹, respectively. Data per piglet for mRNA and protein relative expression were run in triplicate in a single assay to avoid inter-assay variation. SEM, standard error of the means. Values with a row with different letters mean significantly different (P < 0.05).