Diabetic Nephropathy Amelioration by a Low-Dose Sitagliptin in an Animal Model of Type 2 Diabetes (Zucker Diabetic Fatty Rat)

Table 5

Scoring and distribution of vascular lesions in lean control and obese diabetic ZDF rats kidneys at the final time (26 weeks of age). Diabetic ZDF rats with versus without chronic sitagliptin.

Vascular lesion	Rat group	Scoring and distribution of vascular lesions (𝑛 of rats)
	(𝑛=8 each)	Normal	Mild/moderate	Severe
Arteriolar hyalinosis	Lean control (vehicle)	8	0	0
	Obese diabetic (vehicle)	1^aa	1	6^aa
	Obese diabetic (SITA)	3	3^b	2^b
Arteriosclerosis	Lean control (vehicle)	4	4	0
	Obese diabetic (vehicle)	1	5	2
	Obese diabetic (SITA)	3	4	1

^aLean control (vehicle) versus obese diabetic (vehicle) rats; ^bdiabetic SITA-treated versus diabetic untreated rats. One, two or three letters for 𝑃<0.05, 𝑃<0.01, and 𝑃<0.001, respectively. Scoring was defined according to the following criteria: arteriolar hyalinosis was scored as 0 if absent, as 1 if one arteriole with hyalinosis was present, and as 2 if more than one arteriole was observed in the entire slide. Arteriosclerosis was scored as 0 if no intimal thickening was present, as 1 if intimal thickening was less than the thickness of the media, and as 2 if intimal thickening was more than the thickness of the media. SITA, sitagliptin.