Fig. 7

TUNEL assay and caspase-3 levels detecting apoptotic activity. a Representative images of cardiomyocyte apoptosis detected by TUNEL. The blue colour denotes all nuclei, the red colour denotes DNA damage, while the purple colour on the merged images denotes nuclei of apoptotic cardiomyocytes. b A significantly increased ratio of apoptotic nuclei in the D-CON group was detected, which was not apparent in the PRE or POST group. c The increased caspase-3 levels observed in the D-CON animals were markedly reduced in the PRE group, but not in the POST group. AU optical density in arbitrary units, RI relative intensity. n number of animals per group (8 images per animal for TUNEL, 3-5 measurements per animal for caspase-3); Statistics: Wilcoxon’s rank-sum test; numbers are p values