Fig. 1

Effects of lateral ventricular (LV) infusion of the aromatase enzyme inhibitor letrozole (Lz) on basal and hypoglycemic patterns of ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus (VMN) aromatase protein expression in male versus female rats. VMN tissue was micropunch-dissected over predetermined rostro-caudal levels from adult testes-intact male and estradiol-implanted, ovariectomized female rats pretreated by LV Lz infusion before subcutaneous (sc) insulin (INS) or vehicle (V) injection. Data depict mean normalized rostral (a; F_(7,40) = 11.73; p < 0.0001), middle (b; F_(7,40) = 14.14; p < 0.0001), and caudal (c; F_(7,40) = 13.50; p < 0.0001) VMN aromatase protein optical density (O.D.) measures ± S.E.M. for groups of male (M; left-hand side; solid or patterned white bars) and female (F; right-hand side; solid or patterned gray bars) rats treated as follows: V infusion/V injection (V/V-M, solid white bars, n = 6; V/V-F, solid gray bars; n = 6), V infusion/INS injection (V/INS-M; diagonal-striped white bars; n = 6; V/INS-F; diagonal-striped gray bars; n = 6), Lz infusion/V injection (Lz/V-M; cross-hatched white bars; n = 6; Lz/V-F; cross-hatched gray bars, n = 6), Lz infusion//INS injection (Lz/INS-M; stippled white bars; n = 6; Lz/INS-F; stippled gray bars; n = 6). *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001; ****p < 0.0001. The table presented at bottom summarizes differences (↑, increase; ↓, decrease) or no change (NC) in rostral, middle, and caudal VMN aromatase protein expression between treatment groups in each sex