Animals

Male Wistar-Han rats (Charles River, Sulzfeld, Germany) weighting from 280 to 350 g were used in all performed experiments. Animals were initially acclimatized and housed (5 per cage) in environmentally controlled rooms under 12-h light/dark cycle (the light was switched on at 6 a.m.) at a temperature of 23 ± 1 °C and humidity of 55 ± 10%. Rats had free access to typical laboratory food and tap water (VRF 1, Special Diets Services, Witham, UK), enriched environment was not applied. The studies strictly conformed to European regulations for animal experimentation (EU Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes). The experimental protocols were approved by the Local Ethics Commission for Experimentation on Animals (permit nos. 186 and 189/2017). This article does not contain any studies with human participants by any of the authors.