Figure 5

Cholesterol-enriched diet caused apoptotic cell death. A. Western blot results showed a decrease in the levels of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 and an increase in levels of the pro-apoptotic protein Bax levels in the retinas of rabbits fed with cholesterol-enriched diet compared to control rabbits. B. Levels of the endoplasmic reticulum stress marker gadd153 were increased in cholesterol-fed rabbits as shown by Western blotting. C. While no TUNEL-positive cells were detected in retinas from control rabbits, a large number of TUNEL-positive cells were observed in retinas of cholesterol-fed rabbits. Propidium iodide (red) was used as a counterstain for nuclei. Bar = 20 μm. *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001 vs control.