Fig. 2. Expression of soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) subunits (₁, ₂ and ß₁) during cerebellar development. Total RNA was extracted from cerebella (A) or from freshly isolated cerebellar granule cells (FIC) (B) of rat pups and equal amounts of RNA were used for real-time PCR performed with specific primers for guanylyl cyclase subunits as described in Materials and Methods section. The results, expressed as % of control at P3, are the mean ± s.e.m. of four different experiments performed in triplicate. ^*P<0.01, ^**P<0.001 compared to P3 (Bonferroni's test after ANOVA). (C) Concentration of cerebellar cGMP determined by an enzyme-linked immunoassay. Pups were treated with L-NAME (60 mg/kg/day) for various neonatal intervals (P1-P3, P3-P5, P5-P7) or with the guanylyl cyclase inhibitor ODQ (5 mg/kg/day) in two daily administrations for various neonatal intervals (P1-P3, P3-P5, P5-P7), while control pups received vehicle. Values are the mean ± s.e.m. of three different experiments ^*P<0.01 compared with P3, #P<0.01, ##P<0.001 compared with the corresponding control (Bonferroni's test after ANOVA).