Figure 3

Inhibition of caspase-3 after gene silencing of TLR4. (A) Suppression of Fas expression in the hearts of STZ mice treated with TLR4 siRNA. Diabetes was induced by STZ injection as described in Materials and Methods. Diabetic mice were treated with TLR4 siRNA (n = 6) and scrambled control siRNA (n = 6) as described in Figure 2. On day 7 after STZ treatment, the hearts from mice treated with TLR4 siRNA or scrambled siRNA were retrieved. Total mRNA was extracted and used to detect Fas transcripts by qPCR. (B) Suppression of caspase-3 expression in the heart of STZ mice treated with TLR4 siRNA. Diabetic mice were treated with TLR4 siRNA (n = 6) and scrambled control siRNA (n = 6) as described above. The expression of caspase-3 transcripts was detected by qPCR. ( C) Inhibition of caspase-3 activity in the heart of STZ mice treated with TLR4 siRNA. Diabetic mice were treated with TLR4 siRNA (n = 6) and scrambled control siRNA (n = 6) as described above. On day 7 after STZ treatment, the hearts from the mice treated with TLR4 siRNA or scrambled siRNA were retrieved, the protein was prepared and the caspase-3 activity was determined as described in Methods and Materials. Relative quantity of TLR4 mRNA and caspase-3 activity was expressed as mean ± SD. (∗) Statistical significance when compared with scrambled siRNA treated mice was denoted as p < 0.05. Data shown are representative of 3 experiments.