Fig. 4. Pharmacological rescue of symptomatic KO mice.

Eight KO mice and four WT mice were placed on biotin-deficient diet after weaning. KO mice became symptomatic and started losing weight at about day 15. At this time, two of the symptomatic mice were treated with intra-peritoneal (IP) injections of biotin (100 µg/kg/day in 100 µl of normal saline), whereas the other six symptomatic mice and four WT mice received IP injections of l00µl of normal saline. Mice were weighed regularly until day 23 when they were sacrificed. While they were biotin treated, symptomatic KO mice began recovering as seen by their mean weight gain, whereas the untreated symptomatic mice continued to deteriorate and eventually became moribund. In comparison, the WT mice did well on the biotin-deficient diet the entire time.