Mice were ovariectomized or sham operated at 7 weeks of age. Few days after ovariectomy, mice were subcutaneously administered with E2 0.1 mg/kg, PME (2.5 or 25 mg/kg), or MR (0.1 or 1.0 mg/kg) in corn oil once aday for 60 days. The control group was subcutaneously administered with corn oil or 15% tween20 daily for thesame period as the treatment groups. The mice weresacrificed 24 h after the last treatment. Livers were immedi- ately excised for preparing total RNAs as described elsewhere