Table 1.
Biochemical analyses and body weight of control, diabetic, and diabetic plus zinc supplementation groups.
Fig 1.
Histological analyses of the right tibias.
Hematoxylin and eosin staining of longitudinal sections of tibias of the control (A), type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) (B), and T1DM plus zinc supplementation (T1DMS) (C) groups. TB, trabecular bone; MS, medullary space; magnification 20X, scale bar: 50 μm.
Fig 2.
Histomorphometric analyses of structural bone architecture.
Trabecular separation (TbSP, μm) (A), trabecular width (TbWi, μm) (B), and trabecular bone area (BAr, %) (C) of control, type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), and T1DM plus zinc supplementation (T1DMS) rats. All data are shown as means ± SEM. Comparisons between groups were analyzed with Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA on Ranks and Dunn’s post-hoc. p < 0.01*/## vs. control group; p < 0.001*/### vs. control group; p < 0.05 **/# vs. T1DM group; p < 0.001**/### vs. T1DM group.
Fig 3.
Assessment of collagen deposition by picrosirius red staining.
Tibia staining for collagen content (picrosirius red). Total collagen (A), collagen type I (B), and collagen type III (C) contents of the control, type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), and T1DM plus zinc supplementation (T1DMS) groups. All data are shown as means ± SEM. Comparisons between groups were analyzed with Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA on Ranks and Dunn’s post-hoc. p < 0.05 */# vs. control group.
Table 2.
Tibia biomechanical parameters of control, diabetic, and diabetic plus zinc supplementation groups.
Fig 4.
Relative mRNA expression quantification.
RANKL (A), OPG (B), OC (C), COL1A (D), MMP-2 (E), and MMP-9 (F) mRNA expression in bone tissue of control, type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), and T1DM plus zinc supplementation (T1DMS) rats. All data are expressed as fold-change vs. control group values, normalized to GAPDH. Comparisons between groups were analyzed with Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA on Ranks and Dunn’s post-hoc. p < 0.05*/# vs. control group; p < 0.01*/## vs. control group.