Female nod ltj mice

This study was carried out in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care of Animals of the National Institutes of Health. The protocols were approved by the IACUC of the University of Pittsburgh (Protocol numbers 1110982 and 1112140). All procedures and euthanasia were conducted according to these approved protocols with an aim to ameliorate and potential animal discomfort.
Female NOD/LtJ mice were purchased from Jackson Laboratories (Bar Harbor, ME) and were used between the ages of 8–18 weeks or when confirmed diabetic (two consecutive readings of tail vein blood glucose >300 mg/dL). C57BL/6 transgenic mice expressing GFP under the control of the IL-10 promoter (IL-10 GFP “knock-in”; IL10^gfp; [62] (link) were purchased from the Jackson Laboratories and maintained as a colony and along with the transgenic control strain wild-type C57BL/6 female mice (Jackson Laboratories), they were used between the ages of 7–12 weeks. All mice were maintained in a specific pathogen-free environment in the Animal Facility of the Rangos Research Center in accordance with institutional, state and federal guidelines. All animal experiments were conducted following approved protocols by the University of Pittsburgh IACUC.

Female NOD/LtJ mice were obtained pathogen-free from the Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME) and maintained under pathogen-free conditions. Eight-wk old NOD mice were screened for hyperglycemia every 2–4 wks and were diagnosed with diabetes when glucose levels >200 mg/dL were measured in whole blood from the tail vein using a Glucometer Elite XL (Bayer A.G., Whippany, NJ). Blood for demethylation index (DMI) analysis was collected by cheek pouch bleeding, thereby allowing for monitoring of β-cell death in the same animal until the development of frank hyperglycemia. All animal useand husbandry protocols were approved by the Winthrop-University Hospital Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.