Low dose of apelin-36 attenuates cerebral I/R injury-induced caspase-3 activation in rats. (A) The MCA territory of sham treated rats, I/R model rats and I/R model rats treated with apelin-36 (labeled I/R-Apelin) were lysed in RIPA-DOC buffer. Cell lysates were resolved on 12% Tris–Glycine sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Cleaved caspase-3 was detected by cleaved caspase-3 antibody and β-actin served as an internal control was detected by β-actin antibody. (B) Quantification of cleaved caspase-3 expression. The ratio of cleaved caspase-3 to β-actin was further normalized to the sham treated rats. Values represent mean ± SEM. N = 5, * p