After 28 days of SME treatments, animals were anesthetised and sacrificed. Blood samples were collected from punctured rat hearts and centrifuged at 3500 rpm for 5 min. Supernatants of serum were stored at 80 C. Blood glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride, and urea nitrogen were measured using an ultra-sensitive rat insu- lin ELISA kit (Crystal Chem Inc., Downers Grove, IL) as described by the manufacturer. Other serum-specific markers were estimated by LabGenomics Clinical Laboratories (Seoul, Korea). Total serum testosterone concentration was measured by electrochemilumino immunoassay (ECLIA) using an Elecsys Testosterone kit (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany) by the Samkwang Medical Laboratory (Seoul, Korea).