4.3. Measurement of Serum AST, ALT, BUN, Creatinine, and Triglyceride Levels and Hepatic Triglyceride Levels

A Catalyst One Chemistry Analyzer (IDEXX Laboratories, Westbrook, ME, USA) and commercial kits were employed, following the manufacturer instructions, to measure AST, ALT, BUN, triglyceride, and creatinine levels in blood samples. Inter- and intra-analyses had coefficients of variation < 2%. Triton X-100 solution was employed to obtain hepatic triglycerides from homogenized liver samples, as was done in another study [90]. Extract solubilization was then performed; the extracts were twice heated gradually to 90 °C over 5 min and subsequently cooled to room temperature. Insoluble material was removed through centrifugation. Lastly, we obtained the supernatant and employed the Triglyceride Quantification Kit from BioVision (Milpitas, CA, USA) to subject it to colorimetric assay-based triglyceride analysis.