Click on image to view larger version.

Figure 1 Diabetic model and diabetes-induced cardiac apoptosis. Whole-blood glucose (A) and glycated hemoglobin (Hb-A1c) (B) were measured for diabetic mice 14 days after streptozotocin (STZ) treatment. Cardiac apoptosis was examined by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay. Panel C presents the representatives of TUNEL staining images in different groups from diabetic mice 14 days after STZ treatment and panel D presents combined results for the quantitative analysis of TUNEL-positive cells in the cardiac tissues of the diabetic mice from day 7 to day 21 after STZ treatment. Data were presented as mean values ± SD. For each group, at least 5 mice were used. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used followed by the post-hoc Tukey multiple comparison test. *p < 0.05 versus corresponding control. MT-TG = cardiac-specific, metallothionein-overexpressing transgenic mice, WT = wild-type mice.