BAX and type 2 diabetes mellitus: Western blot results showed that compared to control mice, the level of pro-apoptotic protein Bax was increased (relative Bax expression: T2D mice, 1.11 ± 0.10 vs. control mice, 1.38 ± 0.05; p = 0.064), that of anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 was reduced approximately 2-fold (relative Bcl-2 expression: T2D mice, 0.77 ± 0.07 vs. control mice, 0.37 ± 0.07; p = 0.008), and that of cleaved caspase-3 was significantly increased by approximately 3-fold (relative cleaved caspase-3 expression: T2D mice, 0.12 ± 0.03 vs. control mice, 0.36 ± 0.08; p = 0.025) in T2D mouse retina (Figure 5b).