Figure 3

Immunofluresence analysis of the active form of Caspase-3 and Patterns of DNA fragmentation. A and B showed the AVP and Caspase-3 immunostaining of supraoptic nucleus in the same slide at 10 d after hypophysectomy. Generally, there were 793.6 ± 164.5 Caspase-3 positive cells (about 30.1% against the control group) at 10 d after hypophysectomy. The immunostaining of AVP in these same slides with Caspase-3 showed that most of Caspase-3 immunopositive cells were clearly visible colocalized with AVP-immunopositive neurons (arrowheads) and a few Caspase-3 immunopositive cells were not colocalized with AVP (arrow), which may be the OT neurons. C: Agarose gel electrophoresis of DNA samples purified from hypophysectomy group at 10 day after surgery showed oligonucleosomal bands in a "ladder" pattern of migration (lanes 3–6), whereas samples from the control animals did not yield it (lane 2) and line 1 showed the DNA markers.