CASP3 and peripheral arterial disease: Rodent models of PAD displayed elevated protein expression of the apoptotic factors cleaved-caspase 3, cleaved-poly (ADP-robose) polymerase (PARD) and mitochondrial and cytosolic Bcl2-associated X (Bax), and reduced protein expression of the anti-apoptotic factor Bcl-2, compared with controls [21,54,55].