INS and type 1 diabetes mellitus: NOD mice whose immunological characteristics aresimilar to those of insulin-dependent T1DM in humans have been routinely usedas models of spontaneous autoimmune type 1 diabetes mellitus for the last 25 years[21-26].These mice develop insulitis 3–4 weeks after birth.At this pre-diabetic stage, pancreatic islets are primarily infiltrated withCD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes [27].Insulitis causes the destruction of β-cells, but the pancreas of theseanimals produces up to 90% of its insulin until week 10–14, and theanimals can develop diabetes up to the age of 30 weeks.