Fig. 3

The expression levels of mRNA and protein for IKKβ, and NF-κB (p65) genes. The mRNA and protein expression levels for both genes were up-regulated in STZ and NIA/STZ groups relative to controls. CSE treatment led to down-regulation of the mRNA and protein levels of both genes in CSE-NIA/STZ group in comparison to NIA/STZ group. Metformin caused an insignificant decrease in Met-NIA/STZ (met-NIA/STZ vs. NIA/STZ: p = 0.22 and p = 0.06 for IKKβ mRNA and protein; p = 0.07 and p = 0.08 for p65 mRNA and protein, respectively). The mRNA levels of IKKβ, and p65 genes were effectively down-regulated in Asp-STZ compared to STZ; although aspirin significantly decreased the protein levels of IKKβ, it was not able to effectively lower the p65 protein level. *p < 0.01; ^‡ p < 0.05; ^† p < 0.001. ♣, ♦ and ♠ represent p < 0.01, p < 0.05 and p < 0.001, respectively, versus non-diabetic controls. Dotted lines show comparisons between treated and their respective untreated groups. Data are expressed as mean ± SD of 3 duplicate experiments for real time. Four replicates were used for protein quantification