Blood glucose and HbA1c measurement

Mice were lightly restrained in a towel and the distal tail wiped with an alcohol swab. A small nick was made at the distal tip of the tail using a #11 scalpel blade. Initial bleeding was wiped clean with gauze and subsequent drops of blood were either loaded into a room temperature HbA1c cartridge and analyzed using a DCA Vantage Analyzer (Siemens, Munich, Germany), or placed on a glucose test strip in duplicate and inserted into a glucose monitor (TrueTrack, Walgreens, Deerfield, IL).