Figure 7.

Estradiol (E₂) inhibits IFNλ1 signaling in ECC-1 cells and uterine epithelial cells. (A) Polarized ECC-1 cells (n = 5), (B) uterine epithelial cells (n = 8) and (C) uterine fibroblasts (n = 3) were pretreated with E₂ (5x10^-8M) for 48 hrs after which, media was replenished in the presence or absence of IFNλ1 (500 ng/ml) for a further 24 hrs. During this period, E₂ was maintained in the culture media. Subsequently, mRNA was analyzed for OAS2 and ISG15 expression by RT-PCR. mRNA expression data is presented as mean-fold +/- SEM change in gene expression over untreated control and is normalized to the housekeeping gene β-Actin, and then further normalized to the untreated control whose value is set to 1. Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.