Fig. 1

Effect of an ML-diet on the pancreases of db/db mice. a After being fed with an ML-diet or a control-diet from 7-w of age, the pancreases of db/db mice were collected at 10-w, 15-w, and 20-w of age, and stained with anti-insulin antibody. Scale bar, 300 μm. β-cell area (%) was calculated by dividing the insulin-positive area by the total pancreas area in randomly acquired micrographs. b Expression of proinsulin mRNA in pancreases of 10-w old mice and 15-w old mice was analyzed via RT-qPCR. The results are shown as relative mRNA levels of the ML-diet group to control-diet group. CL, control-diet group; ML, ML-diet group, n = 6. All values are mean ± SEM. *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01 based on a two-tailed Student’s ‘t’ test