CASP3 and diabetes mellitus: Results show the marked downregulation of the pro-survival protein Pim-1 (Figure 3A) in female diabetic mice as early as 4 weeks after STZ-induced diabetes, which was associated with marked upregulation of pro-apoptotic protein cleaved Caspase-3 (Figure 3B), while no significant change was observed in male diabetics at this time point (P < 0.05 vs. female non-diabetic and male diabetic).