Figure 5

Attenuation of ER stress protects islet cells from glucotoxicity. The frequency of cells undergoing DNA fragmentation was measured by flow cytometry after incubation of wild-type C57BL/6, Puma−/− or Bim−/− islets for 4 days with 50 mM ribose, 0.5 mM TUDCA (a) or 2.5 mM PBA (b) or 33.3 mM glucose and 0.5 mM TUDCA for 6–7 days (c). Control islets were incubated in a medium containing 5.5 mM glucose. Results represent mean±s.e.m. of n≥6 independent experiments. *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001 (two-way ANOVA)