Abstract:Objective To establish an animal model of type 1 diabetes mellitus similar to human and study the modeling optimal dose of streptozotocin (STZ). Methods A total of 35 female C57BL/6 mice were randomly divided into control group (n = 5) and model group1, 2, 3 (the dose of STZ was 40 mg/kg, 50 mg/kg, 60 mg/kg respectively) with 10 mice in each group. By intraperitoneal injection to the model group of different doses of STZ for 5 days. Blood glucose and body weight before and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 weeks after injection were determined. Possitive rate of insulin autoantibodies (IAA) in mice were determined. The conditions of mice eating, drinking and urination were observed. Flow cytometry (FACS) analysis was used to analyze the proportion of iNKT cells in blood and spleen cell suspension. HE staining was used to observe the pathological changes of pancreatic islets. Results Compared with the control group, the amount of drinking water, food intake and urine volume were significantly increased, and the weight was significantly reduced in model group 3. Compared with the control group, the change of blood glucose in model group 3 was obvious, and the first week after injection of STZ the blood glucose increased rapidly, and reached its peak in the fourth week and then decreased, the difference was significant (P < 0.05). Compared with the control group, the three groups of model group were significantly decreased in the number of islet cells,. The positive rates of IAA in model group 2 and 3 were 30% and 90% respectively. Compared with the control group, the proportion of CD4+ NK1.1+ lymphocytes in peripheral blood and CD4+ NK1.1+ lymphocytes in spleen were significantly decreased in model group 3, and the differences were significant (P < 0.05). Conclusions The optimal dose of STZ is 60 mg/kg in inducing and establishing of type 1 diabetes mellitus in female C57BL/6 mice.