Fig. 3.

Pancreas sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin. (A) The histological study of pancreas sections shows the normal appearance of pancreatic islets (black triangle) in the control group; (B) microscopic examination of pancreatic tissue of untreated diabetic group shows some pathological changes and injury including degeneration and shrinkage (irregular space in the islets of Langerhans, dashed-green arrows), disruption of normal endocrine architecture (dashed- black arrows), and necrotic cells with pyknotic nuclei (black arrows), swelling (spaces in the islets of Langerhans, dashed- blue arrows) which all of them displaying degenerative changes compared to the control normal rats; (C) pancreas section from an animal treated with glibenclamide (0.25 mg/kg) showing necrosis reduction (black arrows) and cellular degeneration (dashed-green arrows), significant endocrine structure restoration (dashed-black arrows); (D-F) pancreas of animals treated with EBRE at 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg, respectively. Treatment of animals whit EBRE at 100 mg/kg shows a slight decrease in endocrine structure disruption (dashed-black arrows), cellular degeneration (dashed-green arrows), and swelling (dashed-blue arrows). Treatment of rats whit EBRE at 200 and 400 mg/kg indicates a remarkable reduction in degeneration and shrinkage (dashed-green arrows), disruption of normal endocrine structure (dashed-black arrows), minimum vacuolar swelling (dashed-blue arrows), and necrosis (black arrows). Magnification: 200⨯. EBRE, Eryngium billardieri root extract