Female nod mice

Female NOD mice (Taconic Biosciences, Hudson, NY, USA) were kept in a specific pathogen-free (SPF) animal facility (temperature 22°C, 12 h light cycle, air change 16 times per h and humidity 55 ± 10%). Animal experiments were approved by the Animal Experiments Inspectorate, Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries of Denmark (reference 2012-15-2934-00086) and experiments performed according to international guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals. The mice had free access to drinking water and standard Altromin 1320 diet (Altromin, Lage, Germany) with or without 0.01% fenofibrate (Sigma, St Louis, MO, USA). The mice were inspected weekly for diabetes from an age of 84 days using FreeStyle Lite (Abbott, Chicago, IL, USA) glucose monitoring. Diabetes diagnosis was based on two blood glucose measurements >12 mmol/l with an interval of 2 days, all measurements were made between 09:00 and 13:00 hours. The date of the first blood glucose measurement >12 mmol/l was used as diabetes onset date. Mice were killed by cervical dislocation at onset of diabetes or at the age of 217 days. Distribution of animals into groups and diabetes monitoring was not performed blinded. In the reversal studies, fenofibrate treatment was immediately commenced at the onset of diabetes and continued for 3 weeks. No inclusion or exclusion criteria were used.

Female NOD mice (6–8 weeks of age) were purchased from Taconic. Female C57BL/6 (6–8 weeks of age), female 129S1 (6–8 weeks of age) and female BALB/c mice (8–10 weeks of age) were purchased from the Jackson Laboratory. Female (6-week-old) NOD.BDC2.5 Thy1.1 transgenic mice were bred under specific pathogen-free, barrier facility at the University of Minnesota. Animals were housed under specific pathogen-free, barrier facility in accordance with NIH guidelines. All animal procedures were approved by the University of Minnesota or Tulane Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.