FIG. 1.

Apoptosis in INS-1E cells exposed to high-glucose treatment. High glucose concentration led to a time-dependent increase in cleaved caspase-3. Levels of β-actin are shown as loading control. A: Typical autoradiographs representative of four experiments are shown. B: Graph representing cleaved caspase-3 levels deduced from quantitative results of four representative experiments obtained from analyses using a Java-based image processing program (Image J), developed by Wayne Rasband (National Institutes of Health). C: INS-1E cells cultured for 72 h in 30 mmol/l glucose presented a series of morphological changes at distinct phases of apoptotic process (indicated by arrows in b and c). These ultrastructures of apoptosis were not detected in INS-1E cells cultured for 72 h in 11 mmol/l glucose (a). Quantification of apoptotic cells was performed on printed micrographs obtained from three independent experiments. The percentage of apoptotic cells versus normal cells was evaluated based on the described morphological apoptotic characteristics. At least 150 cells were counted for each condition. The result was expressed as percent of total cells. (A high-quality digital representation of this figure is available in the online issue.)