Mice on a high-fat, high-fructose diet and treated with low dose streptozotocin develop features of human NASH

Introduction: An improved model of human non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is needed. To this aim we combined a recent model of a high-fructose/high fat diet with low dose Streptozotocin (STZ) to induce hyperglycemia with hyperinsulinemia but relative insulin resistance (IR). Methods: Six week old female C57BL/6 mice were assigned to standard chow (13% kcal from fat; 65% kcal from complex carbohydrates, n=10), or to a high-fat and high-carbohydrate diet (HF/HC; 59% kcal fat; 26% kcal complex carbohydrates, plus 55% fructose and 45% sucrose in drinking water; n=20) for 6, 12 and 18 weeks. 10/20 mice on the HF/…