Induction of Experimental Type 1 Diabetes

The animals were divided into three groups: (1) wild-type C57BL/6J control mice (CT), (2) ALX-treated mice, and (3) STZ-treated mice. Briefly, to induce T1D with ALX, the animals were fasted for 12 hours, followed by an intravenous (i.v.) injection of 60 mg/kg of alloxan monohydrate (Sigma-Aldrich, San Louis, MO, USA) dissolved in 100 μL of sterile saline solution (0.9% NaCl) [13 (link)] using insulin syringes with 12.7 mm × 29G needle (BD Ultra-Fine, Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, USA); for STZ, the animals were fasted for 5 hours, followed by an intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of 65 mg/kg of streptozotocin (ChemCruz®, Santa Cruz, CA, USA) dissolved in 300 μL of 0.1 M citrate buffer, pH 4.5, for 5 consecutive days [3 (link)], using insulin syringes with 12.7 mm × 29G needle. After 15 days from the start of the induction protocol, the glycemia of the animals was measured using Accu-Chek Advantage II (Roche Diagnostics, São Paulo, SP, Brazil). Only the animals with glycemia above 300 mg/dL were considered diabetic for this study.