Chronic Arsenic Exposure in Mice

All procedures involving mice were approved by the University of North Carolina (UNC) Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. Male and female C57BL6 WT mice were obtained from Jackson Laboratories (Bar Harbor, ME) and let to acclimatize at the UNC Animal Facilities for one week. These WT mice were 17 weeks (±3 days) old at the beginning of the study. Male and female As3mt-KO mice on a C57BL6 background (Drobna, et al. 2009 (link)) were bred at the UNC Animal Facilities and were 17–20 weeks old at the beginning of the study. All mice were housed under controlled conditions (12-h light/dark cycle at 22+−1°C and 50±10% relative humidity) with ad libitum access to pelleted rodent chow (Prolab Isopro RMH 3000, LabDiet, St. Louis, MO). Mice drank either deionized water or deionized water containing 1 ppm As as sodium arsenite (AsNaO₂, ≥99% pure; Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) ad libitum for four weeks (N=15–21 per experimental group). Water with iAs^III was freshly prepared every week to minimize oxidation of iAs^III to iAs^V. Food and water consumption and body weight were monitored in all treatment groups every week and two weeks, respectively.