DES and type 2 diabetes mellitus: Immunohistochemical staining of left ventricular tissue samples prepared from the untreated diabetic group (T2DM) 10 weeks post diabetic induction showed a substantial decrease in the expression of desmin protein (Figure 3B,D), which was significantly (p < 0.0001) prevented by metformin treatment (Figure 3C,D) that led to levels comparable to those of the control group (Figure 3A,D).