Effect of DP extract on apoptosis in the kidney tissues of STZ-induced diabetic rats. (A) Expression levels of cleaved caspase 3, cleaved caspase 9, Bcl-2-associated X protein (Bax), B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) were measured by Western blot analysis, using an experimental model of STZ-induced diabetic rats. β-Actin expression was used as the loading control. The Western blot results are representative of three separate experiments. (B) Representative graphs indicate the fold changes of Western blot data. Values are the mean ± S.D. of triplicate experiments. Statistical analyses were performed using one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s HSD post hoc test for multiple comparisons. ** p < 0.01 compared to the control group; #
p < 0.05 and ##
p < 0.01 compared to the STZ-treated group. (C) Representative immunohistochemical staining of transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) in the kidney of STZ-induced diabetic rats. Black arrows represent TUNEL-positive cells. Original magnification: 200×, scale bar: 50 μm.