Figure 2: Islet Morphology. Pancreatic sections were stained for insulin (green), glucagon (red) and somatostatin (blue) A) A representative islet from a sedentary lean control rat shows that in sedentary animals there is a mantle around the islet made of glucagon and somatostatin. Insulin-producing β-cells are in the core of the islet. B) Sedentary diabetic rat islets clearly contained regions devoid of insulin, glucagon, or somatostatin staining. Islets with sections void of hormone staining were classified as disrupted. C) Exercise did not change the shape or orientation of the cells in the control animals. D) However, exercise improved islet shape in the diabetic rats. E) Quantification of islet classifications of intact and disrupted shows no effect of exercise in the control rats, and a dramatic decline in the percentage of intact islets with diabetes (p < 0.001). Exercise of the diabetic groups significantly increased the percentage of intact islets and decreased the percentage of disrupted islets (p < 0.001). Scale bar represents 100 µm.