Sprague-Dawley Rat Housing and Care

Male Sprague–Dawley rats, weighing 200–250 g, were purchased from Samtaco Animal Co. (Osan, Kyungki-do, Korea). All rats were housed in a limited access rodent facility with up to five rats per polycarbonate cage. The room controls were set to maintain the temperature at 22 ± 2 °C and the relative humidity at 55 ± 15%, the cages were lit by artificial light for 12 h each day, and sterilized drinking water and a standard chow diet were supplied ad libitum throughout the study. All animal experiments began a minimum of 7 days after the animals arrived, were conducted in accordance with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals Eighth Edition (by the National Research Council of the National Academies, revised in 2011), and were approved by the Kyung Hee University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. All efforts were made to minimize the number and suffering of animals.