BAX and cirrhosis of liver: As expected, apoptosis of enterocytes was increased during the development of liver cirrhosis (Fig. 5a and b) via regulating Bax and Bcl-2 (Fig. 6a and b), and external administration of IGF-1 reduced enterocytic apoptosis in liver cirrhotic rats (Fig. 5b and c) through regulating Bax and Bcl-2 (Fig. 6a and b).