Sitagliptin and metformin reduced T2DM-associated cell-death and fibrosis in the heart.

(a) By TUNEL, detection of apoptotic cells in the myocardium (see arrows) and heart vessel (see arrowheads). At the bottom, a typical striated-like pattern immunostaining of vinculin (see arrows). (b) Caspase-3 expression in the hearts. (c) Masson staining for wistar, GK and GK-treated hearts showing ECM accumulation (green-blue staining) (n=10, each group). (d) ECM protein [pro-type-I collagen and fibronectin (FN)] levels, and pro-fibrotic mRNA expression (TGFß1 and CTGF) (n=10, each group). *p

(a) 采用末端脱氧核苷酸转移酶介导的dUTP缺口末端标记法（TUNEL）检测心肌组织（箭头所示）与心脏血管（箭头头所示）中的凋亡细胞。下方可见黏着斑蛋白（vinculin）典型的条纹状免疫染色信号（箭头所示）。(b) 分析心脏组织内半胱氨酸天冬氨酸特异性蛋白酶3（Caspase-3）的表达水平。(c) 对Wistar大鼠、GK大鼠及GK干预组大鼠的心脏组织开展马松三色染色（Masson staining），以显示细胞外基质（extracellular matrix, ECM）的异常蓄积（染色呈青蓝色），每组n=10只样本。(d) 检测细胞外基质相关蛋白[I型前胶原与纤连蛋白（FN）]的表达量，以及促纤维化相关mRNA（转化生长因子β1（TGFβ1）、结缔组织生长因子（CTGF））的转录水平，每组n=10只样本。*p