Click on image to view larger version.

Figure 2 Caspase-3 activation in the diabetic hearts. Activation of caspase-3 was measured by enzymatic assay for its activity (A), Western blotting assay for the protein expression of its active isoform (B), and double staining for its localization (C). Cardiac tissues for both assays were collected from diabetic mice 14 days after STZ treatment. In panel C, "-SA" indicates staining for cardiomyocytes using -sarcomeric actin; "Csp-3" indicates the specific staining for active isoform of caspase-3; and "overlay" indicates the overlapping of these 2 specific stainings. These images in panel C are the representatives of each group including more than 3 mice with 2 sections from each mouse. Data were presented as mean values ± SD. In each group, at least 5 mice were included. One-way ANOVA was used and was followed by the post-hoc Tukey multiple comparison test for the data from WT mice in A. A 2-tailed unpaired Student t test was used for the rest of the data. *p < 0.05 versus corresponding control. Abbreviations as in Figure 1.