Figure 1

A. Semiquantitative mRNA levels for D1R in cg1. The graph depicts a decrease in all groups when compared to control. Low, medium and high AS groups show 92 ± 2.4, 52 ± 1.3 and 62 ± 0.6%, respectively considering the control group as 100%. The lowest mRNA level is in the medium AS group. Image B shows mRNA levels for D2R in the same region with 79 ± 1.2, 120 ± 1.5 and 129 ± 1.6% for groups with low, medium and high AS, respectively. Notice that there is a progressive increase in mRNA levels, as the autotomy behaviour increases (n = 4 in all groups). All percentages are significantly different when compared to control (one-way ANOVA, Bonferroni post hoc *p < 0.05). At the top of each frame, there is an example of the electrophoresis agarose gel showing the control oligonucleotide (upper band) and the cDNA of D1R's in (A) and D2R's in (B) (lower band).