Accu chek 3 glucometers and chemstrips

All mice were maintained in a specific-pathogen-free facility. This work was approved by the Ontario Cancer Institute Animal Resource Centre in accordance with institutional guidelines and the guidelines of the Canadian Council on Animal Care. The C57BL/6 mice used in the studies were purchased from Jackson Laboratories (Bar Harbor, ME).
The RIP-gp mouse line has been described previously [21] (link), as have the P14 and Smarta TCR transgenic mice [26] (link), [27] (link). Congenic Thy1.1⁺ mice were purchased from Jackson Laboratories (B6.PL-Thy1^a/CyJ) and crossed to the P14 and Smarta transgenic mice. Blood glucose measurements were taken 2–3 times per week using Accu-chek III Glucometers and Chemstrips (Roche) and mice were considered diabetic following 2 consecutive measurements of >14 mM.

P14 transgenic mice and virus-induced diabetes model, RIP-gp mice, were generated as previously described [24 (link), 25 (link)]. C57BL/6 and spontaneous type 1 diabetes model, NOD mice, were purchased from Taconic. DEREG mice (C57BL/6 background) were a kind gift from Tim Sparwasser. CD45.1, CD90.1 and CD11c-DTR mice were obtained from The Jackson Laboratory. To generate the RIP-iCasp-3 mice, iCaspase-3 cDNA was inserted into Xba1 site of the pINS vector to drive expression under the control of rat insulin 2 promoter. A fragment of RIP-iCasp-3 cassette was microinjected into the pro-nuclei of C57BL/6 fertilized eggs. Four independent lines were produced. Blood glucose concentrations were determined (2–3 times per week) using Accu-chek III Glucometers and Chemstrips (Roche) and considered mice diabetic after two consecutive measurements of >15 mM. All mice were maintained at the Ontario Cancer Institute (Toronto, Canada) in accordance with approved protocols (AUP929) and were euthanized by carbon dioxide.