2.1 Animals and ethical approval
All of the animal procedures in this study are in accordance with the
recommendations of the guidelines for the Care and Use of Laboratory
Animals (1996. National Academy of Sciences. Washington, DC, USA), and
were approved by the Ethical Committee of the Fudan University School of
Basic Medical Sciences. Pathogen-free male Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats
(seven-week old, 180 ± 10 g body weight) were purchased from the
Experimental Animal Center of the Chinese Academy of Science in
Shanghai.
The
animals were fed in cages with food and water available ad
libitum , and housed in an air-conditioned room (22 - 25°C) illuminated
from 07:00 to 19:00. Maximal efforts were made to minimize the number of
animals and their suffering.