housed in air-conditioned animal house with standard envi-ronmental conditions of constant temperature of 20–25◦C, relativehumidity of 45–55%, 12 h light–dark cycle. Before and during theexperiment mice were fed standard pellet diet and water ad libi-tum. After randomization into various groups according to the sexbefore the experiment, the mice were acclimatized for a periodof 2–3 days. Prior to experimental treatments, animals were sub-jected to fasting for 18 h but were allowed free access to water. Allthe experiments were done during daytime.