FIGURE 2.

Effects of fluoxetine on beta‐cell proliferation and apoptosis. MIN6 beta cells were exposed to fluoxetine (0.1 and 1 μmol/L) for 72 hours, during which 10 μmol/L 5‐bromo‐2′‐deoxyuridine (BrdU) was present for the final 2 hours of incubation and beta‐cell proliferation was determined by quantifying BrdU incorporation into replicating DNA (A, n = 10, *P < 0.05 vs. control). Islets isolated from three CD‐1 mice were incubated with 1 μmol/L fluoxetine or vehicle (0.005% v/v DMSO) in the presence of 1 mg/mL BrdU for 5 days and wax‐embedded sections of islets were immunostained with antibodies directed against BrdU (green) and insulin (red; B, left panel, scale bars: 50 μm). The number of BrdU‐positive beta cells per islet was quantified by analysis of multiple acquisitions of 84 to 129 islets per condition, each with 12 paraffin sections (B, right panel, ****P < 0.0001 vs. control). Mouse islets were exposed to fluoxetine (0.1 and 1 μmol/L) for 72 hours, of which the final 24 hours were in the absence or presence of a cytokine cocktail, and islet cell apoptosis was determined by measuring caspase 3/7 activities (C, n = 8, representative of three independent experiments, **P < 0.01; ****P < 0.0001 vs. control)