*4.1. Animals*

Male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats (180–220 g) were purchased from the Experimental Animal Center of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University. All rats in this experiment were housed in a controlled environment (five rats per cage, temperature: 25 ± 2 ◦C, humidity: 55% ± 5%, and light: 12 h light/dark cycle) and were fed a standard rodent food and allowed distilled water ad libitum. All experimental procedures were approved by the Animal Care and Welfare Committee of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Zhejiang, China (ZSLL, 2015-022).
