Fig 1: Expression of calponin, vimentin and connexin-43 mRNA in upper and lower segment myometrial cells (A) Representative agarose gel demonstrating expression of calponin (CNN1), vimentin (VIM), connexin 43 (GJA1) and GAPDH mRNA expression in upper and lower segment myometrial cells through passage 1 (p1) to passage 4 (p4) in non-treated (NS) and IL-1β (IL)-stimulated cells by conventional RT-PCR analysis. (B) Real-time RT-PCR analysis identified significantly higher expression of VIM and GJA1 in LS myometrial cells (grey bars) compared to US cells (black bars). Data are presented as the mean ± SEM of all LS and US cells from p1 through p10 and analyzed by student t test. (** P=0.003, *** P<0.0001)