Figure 3.

Loss of islet Bax and/or global Bak deletion does not affect islet physiology in vitro. (a) Average cytosolic calcium (Ca²⁺) responses of whole islets from WT and Bax-Bak DKO mice stimulated sequentially with increasing glucose concentrations (G = mM glucose) and 3 mM glucose + 30 mM KCl (KCl). (b) Area under the curve (AUC) analysis of the response to each stimulus in panel a. The AUC is expressed per 5 min intervals for comparison (n = 4 independent islet preparations). (c) Glucose stimulated insulin secretion from static incubations of isolated WT and Bax-Bak DKO islets subjected to sequential stimulation for 1 h each with 3 mM glucose (3G) and 20 mM glucose (20G) (n = 7 independent experiments). (d) Insulin content of size-matched islets from WT and Bax-Bak DKO mice (n = 5 independent experiments). (e) Ins1 and Ins2 mRNA expression in WT and Bax-Bak DKO islets normalized to β-Actin housekeeping gene (n = 4). Data represent mean ± SEM, a.u. arbitrary units. (b,c) were analyzed by 2-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post-hoc comparisons. (d,e) were analyzed by unpaired student’s t-tests.