Figure 3.

Effect of dietary oils on intraepidermal nerve fiber density in high-fat-fed diabetic Sprague-Dawley rats. Intraepidermal nerve fiber density was examined after early (open bars) and late (hatched bars) interventions as described in Materials and Methods. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM in profiles per mm. The number of rats in each group was the same as shown in Tables 1 and 2, for the early and late intervention periods, respectively. Intraepidermal nerve fiber densities for control and diabetic rats at the beginning of the early intervention treatment were 16.9 ± 1.0 and 13.1 ± 0.6 profiles/mm, respectively. ^∗ P < 0.05 compared to control rats; ⁺ P < 0.05 compared to diabetic rats. OO: olive oil; SO: safflower oil; EPO: evening primrose oil; FO: flaxseed oil; MO: menhaden oil.