Characterization of Wfs1-Deficient Rats

For this study, outbred male CD^® (Sprague-Dawley) IGS homozygous Wfs1-deficient (Wfs1-ex5-KO232) rats and their wild-type (WT) littermates (as controls) were used; outbred animals were selected as these are more representative of population-level heterogeneity. Wfs1-ex5-KO232 mutants have previously been extensively characterized [50 (link)]. Breeding and genotyping were executed at the Laboratory Animal Centre at the University of Tartu. Animals were housed in groups of 4 under a 12 h light/dark cycle (lights on at 7 a.m.) with unlimited access to food (Sniff universal mouse and rat maintenance diet, Ssniff #V1534, ssniff Spezialdiäten, Germany) and water. All experimental protocols were approved by the Estonian Project Authorization Committee for Animal Experiments (No 155, 6 January 2020), and all experiments were performed in accordance with the European Communities Directive of September 2010 (2010/63/EU). The study was carried out in compliance with the ARRIVE guidelines.