Fig 2: Effect of AIV on the apoptosis of RPE cells from rats with DM. (A) AIV significantly decreased the apoptosis of RPE cells from rats with DM as shown by TUNEL assay, (a) Sham, (b) DM, (c) DM+H-AIV, (d) percentage apoptotic cells; scale bar, 100 µm; (B) representative apoptosis-related protein expression bands in RPE cells from rats with DM; (C) statistical analysis of gray value of apoptosis-related protein bands, (a) Bcl-2, (b) Bax, (c) Bcl-2/Bax, (d) Fas, (e) FasL, (f) Fas/FasL, (g) active caspase-3, (h) active caspase-8, (i) active caspase-9. *P<0.05 and ***P<0.001 vs. DM group, and ###P<0.001 vs. Sham group. Data are expressed as the means ± SD of 3 individual experiments. AIV, astragaloside-IV; DM, diabetes mellitus; RPE cells, retinal pigment epithelial cells.

Fig 3: Tabersonine involved expression of the protein on death receptor-mediated extrinsic pathway. (A) Western blot for Fas, Fas-L, Caspase-8 and Bid; (B) Semi-quantitative analysis for Fas, FasL, Caspase-8 and Bid. n = 3 per group. *, p < 0.05, **, p < 0.01, ***, p < 0.001, compared with the control group.

Fig 4: Etanercept attenuated the apoptosis of CSE-induced HPAECs via regulating levels of cell apoptosis-related proteins. (A–F) Protein levels of Bax (C), Bcl-2 (D), FasL (E) and Fas (F) after CSE exposure and ETN treatment were measured by Western blot. β-Actin was used as the internal control. All experiments were performed in triplicate and experimental data were expressed as mean ± standard errors (SE). *P<0.05, vs control; #P<0.05, vs CSE.