2.2. Animals
All experiments were conducted in accordance with the Ethical Principles in Animal Research adopted by the Brazilian College of Animal Experimentation (CO- BEA) and were approved by the Ethics Committee for Animal Research of the Bot- ucatu Biosciences Institute. Adult male Swiss mice (30 days old) from the colony of the UNESP Central Animal House were used in all experiments after a 1 week- adaptation period at the Animal House of the Department of Pharmacology. The animals were maintained under controlled environmental conditions of tempera- ture (21 ± 2 C) and light (12/12 light/dark cycle) with food and water ad libitum un- til 2 h before experimental procedures.