After treatment on the day of the experiment, the
animals were euthanized by intraperitoneal injection of pentobarbital
sodium (50 mg/kg BW). The thoracic aorta was carefully excised and
immediately placed in iced-cold Krebs−Henseleit solution with all
connective tissue removed. The aorta was cut transversely into 3 mm
wide strips for the relaxation response study and ∼1 cm wide strips for
Western blot analysis.