Investigation of gender bias in streptozotocin and high fat diet induced mouse model of diabetes mellitus

Five hundred thirty seven million adults suffer from diabetes among which 17.7 million more men than women have the disease, on the other hand among 1.9 billion overweight adults 11% of men and 15% of women are obese, hence, gender is a significant variable in diabetes and obesity research.A prior survey indicated that only 11.2% of preclinical animal studies included both sexes, with 20.7% of studies involving females and 66% involving males, resulting in a male-tofemale ratio of 3.2:1, reflecting a significant male gender bias in research.This sex bias leads to generalizations of findings for males and females without adequate justification.In this study Induction of STZ-induced Type I Diabetes and HFDinduced & Type II Diabetes was done in both male and female mice to investigate the presence of any gender bias.The body weight and blood glucose of the mice were routinely monitored.The metabolic changes associated with these models were measured, by monitoring insulin sensitivity via the Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT).Liver function tests (LFT) and lipid profile tests are conducted to evaluate liver health and lipid metabolism, which are often impaired in diabetic states.Additionally, hematological assessments, including total cell count and differential cell (DC) count was conducted to evaluate any immune or inflammatory responses associated with the induction of the disease diabetes.Finally, histological analysis of tissues, particularly pancreatic and liver tissues, provides insights into the structural changes and potential damage induced by diabetes in these organs focusing from gender specific way.The findings reveal that male and female mice exhibit differential responses to STZ-induced Type I Diabetes and HFD-induced Type II Diabetes in majority of the metabolic, hematological and histological parameters including blood glucose, body weight, OGTT, LFT, highlighting the importance of considering gender as a significant variable.Increasing evidences suggests, rather than over-reliance on male-only animal model, balancing both sexes in the preclinical studies and drug discovery study is important as gender specific personalized dosage regimen and gender specific therapeutic intervention might be an emerging option for better management of the disease.