Total RNA was extracted from hepatic tissues using TRIzol® reagent (Invitrogen; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.) according to the manufacturer's instructions. The purity and concentration of RNA was measured using the OD at 260 nm and the 260/280 nm ratio was calculated. RNA with a 260/280 ratio between 1.8-2.0 was used for subsequent experiments. cDNA was synthesized using a cDNA Reverse Transcription kit (Fermentas; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.) under the following conditions: 42˚C for 60 min, 70˚C for 5 min and 4˚C for 30 min. Subsequently, qPCR was performed using a SYBR® Green qPCR supermix (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.) on a CFX96 qPCR system (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.). The following thermocycling conditions were used: Initial denaturation at 95˚C for 3 min; followed by 40 cycles of denaturation at 95˚C for 30 sec, and annealing at 60˚C for 30 sec. The primer sequences used are listed in Table SI. The relative mRNA expression levels of the target genes were calculated using the 2-ΔΔCq method (19 (link)) and normalized to that of GAPDH.