%0 Journal Article
%T Softened food reduces weight loss in the streptozotocin
%A Dorte B S£¿rensen
%A Fredrik W Sand
%A Henrik S£¿ndergaard
%A Klas SP Abelson
%A Sisse A N£¿rgaard
%J Laboratory Animals
%@ 1758-1117
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0023677217747915
%X The streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mouse is a widely used model of diabetes and diabetic nephropathy (DN). However, it is a well-known issue that this model is challenged by high weight loss, which despite supportive measures often results in high euthanization rates. To overcome these issues, we hypothesized that supplementing STZ-induced diabetic mice with water-softened chow in addition to normal chow would reduce weight loss, lower the need for supportive treatment, and reduce the number of mice reaching the humane endpoint of 20% weight loss. In a 15 week STZ-induced DN study we demonstrated that diabetic male mice receiving softened chow had reduced acute weight loss following STZ treatment (p£¿=£¿0.045) and additionally fewer mice were euthanized due to weight loss. By supplementing the diabetic mice with softened chow, no mice reached 20% weight loss whereas 37.5% of the mice without this supplement reached this humane endpoint (p£¿=£¿0.0027). Excretion of corticosterone metabolites in faeces was reduced in diabetic mice on softened chow (p£¿=£¿0.0007), suggesting lower levels of general stress. Finally, it was demonstrated that the water-softened chow supplement did not significantly affect the induction of key disease parameters, i.e. %HbA1C and albuminuria nor result in abnormal teeth wear. In conclusion, supplementation of softened food is refining the STZ-induced diabetic mouse model significantly by reducing stress, weight loss and the number of animals sacrificed due to humane endpoints, while maintaining the key phenotypes of diabetes and nephropathy
%K streptozotocin-induced diabetes
%K diabetic nephropathy
%K weight loss
%K refinement
%K reduction
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0023677217747915