Fig. 1.

Effects of silibinin on fasting blood glucose, serum insulin and pro-inflammatory cytokines as well as expression of ERα in pancreatic β-cells in type 2 diabetic SD rats. (A) Fasting blood glucose of SD rats in different groups was monitored during the study. (B) Rats were euthanized after 4 weeks of silibinin or metformin administration, and the serum was collected to evaluate the insulin secretion of rats with different treatments. (C, D) Levels of IL-1β and TNF-α in serum of rats from different groups were determined. (E) Representative immunofluorescence images showed insulin- and ERα-positive cells in pancreatic islet of normoglycemic and diabetic SD rats with different treatments (magnification, ×200; scale bar, 50 μm). (F, G) Quantification of the insulin-positive cell number and ERα-positive pancreatic β-cell percentage in islets. NG, normoglycemia; DB, diabetes; DS, diabetes+silibinin; DM, diabetes+metformin. Data are mean ± SEM (n=6 in each group). ^*p<0.05 vs. NG group; ^#p<0.05 vs. DB group.