Induction of Diabetes in Mice

Diabetes was induced using a protocol of multiple low-dose STZ (S0130, Sigma-Aldrich) injections. Female mice were injected intraperitoneally with STZ on five consecutive days at a concentration of 50 mg/kg of body weight. STZ was prepared fresh in 0.1 M sodium citrate buffer (pH 4.5) to a final concentration of 7.5 mg/ml (Tesch and Allen, 2007 (link)). Blood glucose levels were monitored 10 days after the last STZ injection using a commercial glucometer (Accu-Chek Aviva Nano, Roche Diagnostics). Mice with non-fasting blood glucose above 250 mg/dl (Pavlinkova et al., 2008 (link)) were considerer diabetic mice. Diabetic and age-matched control female mice were mated with Daam1^+/gt male mice.