Statistical analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Corporation) and GraphPad PRISM 5 (GraphPad Software, San Diego, CA, USA). Images were processed with ImageJ V1.41, NIH, USA and/or CorelDRAW X8 (Corel Corporation, Ottawa, Canada).
Statistical tests performed were Student’s-two-tailed t-test, one-way-Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and repeated-measures ANOVA for grouped analysis, followed by Tukey’s post-hoc tests for multiple comparison.
Data were expressed as mean ± SEM and a 0.5% general significance level was defined, with significance levels as follows: *: p < 0.05; **: p < 0.01; ***: p < 0.001.