Streptozotocin-induced Diabetes

The injection of STZ to induced diabetes has been used for many years. This drug destroys the pancreatic islet cells that produce insulin, thus causing the systemic development of diabetes-like symptoms. As retinopathy is a major complication of diabetes in humans, these animals are very useful for the testing of anti-inflammatory and anti-angiogenic compounds to reduce vascular leakage and the associated symptoms of retinopathy. Our group was the first to demonstrate that BN rats develop more severe retinopathy than SD rats, and present a more ideal model for drug screening.