Figure 5.

Smad3 deficiency promotes β cell proliferation in islets grafted into STZ-induced diabetic mice. (A) 16 weeks post-transplantation, grafted islet β cells are revealed by immunostaining for insulin. (B) Quantitation of the index of average β cell area per section as described in the Methods. (C, D) Double immunostaining and quantitation of PCNA⁺ insulin⁺ β cell (arrows) in grafted islets under renal capsule at week 16 after islet transplantation. (E, F) Early β cell proliferation on day 7 post-transplantation of 100 Smad3KO or Smad3WT islets revealed by BrdU⁺ insulin⁺ cells (arrows). Each dot represents one animal and data are expressed as mean ± SD. ** p< 0.01 and ***p < 0.001. Scale bar, 100 μm.