Retinoic acid-stimulated ERK1/2 pathway regulates meiotic initiation in cultured fetal germ cells
Fig 2
The effect of ERK1/2 signaling activity on Stra8 expression in XX germ cells.
(A) To determine the relationship between the ERK1/2 pathway and Stra8 expression, E12.5 XX germ cells were cultured with the MEK inhibitor (U0126) at different concentrations (0, 10, 20, and 50 μM) for 24h. After culture, samples were subjected to qPCR. Results were normalized to the β-actin transcript expression. All expression values were calculated relative to control levels set at 1.0. Data represent the mean ± SEM (n = 3). ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001 vs. control. (B) To determine the relationship between the RA-stimulated ERK1/2 pathway and STRA8 protein expression, XX germ cells were cultured under the four different conditions (control, 1 μM RA, RA+50 μM U0126, U0126) for 24h. After culture, the cells were subjected to Western blotting to quantify the ERK1/2 phosphorylation and STRA8 protein expression levels. The fold changes of these proteins were represented on the top of each band as numerical values that calculated relative to the control set as 1.0.