Diabetes-related intestinal region-specific thickening of ganglionic basement membrane and regionally decreased matrix metalloproteinase 9 expression in myenteric ganglia

Figure 1 Representative electron micrograph of a myenteric ganglion from an insulin-treated diabetic rat. A: The myenteric ganglion is surrounded by basement membrane (BM) (arrows). Scale bar: 500 nm; B: Quantitative evaluation of BM thickness in different gut segments of control, diabetic, and insulin-treated diabetic rats. The thickening of BM surrounding myenteric ganglia remained unchanged in the duodenum, however it increased significantly in the ileum of diabetic rats. Immediate insulin treatment prevented BM thickening in the ileum. ^aP < 0.0001 (relative to the controls); ^bP < 0.0001 (between diabetics and insulin-treated diabetics).