Female sprague dawley rats

All animal study protocols were approved by The University of British Columbia's Animal Care Committee. Female Sprague Dawley (SD) rats (290–320 g body weight) were purchased from Charles River Laboratories (Wilmington, MA, USA).

Female Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats (8-weeks-old) were purchased from Charles River Laboratories (Wilmington, MA, USA). The rats were housed in groups of two per cage and were maintained under pathogen-free, temperature- and humidity-controlled conditions (22 ± 3 °C, 55 ± 2%) under ambient conditions with 12-h dark and light cycles (lights on at 07:00 h). Animals were fed standard feed, and food and water were not limited. All experiments were performed following protocols approved by The Chancellor’s Animal Research Committee at the University of California at Los Angeles (ARC #2005-175-41E, approved on 30 January 2018), and according to the PHS Policy for the Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and the UCLA Animal Care and Use Training Manual guidelines. SD rats (8 weeks of age) were randomly divided into two groups: one group of rats was sham-operated, and another group of rats underwent ovariectomy. OVX rats and sham rats were provided by Charles River Laboratories, and the OVX group underwent bilateral OVX using a sterile technique as described previously [48 (link)]. Rats in both groups were fed for 4 weeks after surgery.

Female Sprague–Dawley (SD) Rats (200–250 g) were purchased from Charles River Laboratories. Control male SD rats (250 g) were used for mating; each male was housed with two females in a new, clean cage. Female rats were pregnant 3–4 times. For the first two pregnancies, newborns were taken away immediately after birth. For the third or fourth pregnancy, after confirmation of pregnancy (Day 1; determined by presence of a plug on the morning after mating), the females were immediately removed from the males, and placed into new cages for the duration of the experiment. Drinking water with or without l-methonine (Sigma-Aldrich, 9 g/L) was supplied from day one of first pregnancy till sacrifice.
Animals were killed with sodium pentobarbital (50 mg/kg, ip) on day 19–21 of 3rd or 4th pregnancy. Blood was collected from the left ventricle (LV). The hearts were immediately harvested and weighed. Some fresh LV tissues were used for oxygen consumption and superoxide measurement. The rest of the tissues and plasma were immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen and were stored in −80°C until use.
The protocol of the study was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of New York Medical College and followed the current guidelines of the National Institutes of Health and American Physiological Society for the use and care of laboratory animals.

Female Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were purchased from Charles River Laboratories. Animals were maintained under a 12-h light/dark cycle and were provided food and water ad libitum. All rats were 8–10 weeks of age at the time of experimentation. A group size of three was used for each time point for the edema progression study and five animals were used for each case in the treatment study. The sample size of the animals is calculated in terms of a resource equation (Kilkenny et al., 2009 (link)).

All experimental procedures involving animals and their care were conducted in conformity with the State Council Regulations for Laboratory Animal Management (Enacted in 1988) and were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the WuXi AppTec and Simcere, People's Republic of China. Female Balb/c nude mice at 6–8 weeks of age were purchased from Shanghai Lingchang Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China). Female NOD.Cg-Prkdc^scid Il2rg^tm1Vst/Vst (NPG) mice at 6–8 weeks of age were purchased from Beijing Vitalstar Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Beijing, China). Female Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats at 3 weeks of age were purchased from Charles River (Beijing, China).

All procedures were performed in accordance with the European Union Directive (2010/63/EU) and approved by the local ethical committee at Lund University, as well as the Swedish Department of Agriculture (Jordbruksverket). Female Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were purchased from Charles River Laboratories and female nude athymic rats (Hsd:RH-Foxn1^rnu) were purchased from Envigo. All rats were housed in ventilated cages with ad libitum access to food and water under a 12- h light/dark cycle.

Female Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats (Charles River), with an initial body weight of 280-300 g, were maintained on a 12 h light/12 h dark schedule at a temperature of 22 ± 2°C and 65% humidity. Access to standard food and water was unlimited. Rats were acclimated to the animal facility for 3 days before any procedures. Nicotine (Sigma), dissolved in the saline solution, was administrated to these female SD rats via osmotic mini-pumps (Alzet) with a release rate of 6 mg/kg/day. These pumps were implanted subcutaneously on the fifth day of their pregnancy and stayed there for 17 days (considering the gestational period for rats is 21 days).