BCL2 and diabetic cardiomyopathy: These data suggest that apoptosis is the major form of cell death in the early stages of diabetic cardiomyopathy.Other pro-survival proteins such as Akt (Figure 3D) and Bcl-2 (Figure 3E) started to decrease at 12 weeks in female diabetics (P < 0.05 vs. female non-diabetic).