Central Animal House Facility of Hamdard University
(New Delhi, India). Rats were housed in groups of six animals per
cage at ambient temperature of 25 ± 1 C with 12 h light/dark
cycles after initial acclimatization for about 1 week. They had free
access to standard rodent pellet diet and water ad libitum. Animals
received humane care in accordance with the guideline of the
Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of
Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA), Government of India, and prior
permission obtained from the Institutional Animal Ethics
Committee (IAEC No.:173/CPCSEA, 28 January 2000