Figure 1. Early stage hypertension and diabetes exacerbates retinal cell death. A: Flat-mounted retinal samples showing increased total retinal cell death, as indicated with TUNEL-positive nuclei using immunoperoxidase staining, in early stage spontaneous hypertensive rats (SHR) which was exacerbated in diabetic spontaneous hypertensive rats (SHR+D) compared to control wistar group (W). B: Statistical analysis of the number of TUNEL-positive cells showed a 4.7 fold (64.4±2.8) increase in the number of apoptotic cells in the SHR alone group and 10.6 fold (142.6±16.3) increase in the combined SHR+D group when compared to the W control group (13.5±2; n=5–7, *p<0.001). There was also a 5.8 fold significant difference between the SHR+D and SHR groups (#p=0.002).