2.2. Blood and Organ Sampling

After the nutritional protocol, all rats were fasted for 12 h and anesthetized by intraperitoneal administration of a diazepam‒ketamine mix (4:3, v/v). Blood was collected from the abdominal aorta and sampled in coated tubes with 10% ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) from Sigma (St. Louis, MO, USA). Total blood was centrifuged at 1000× g for 10 min, the supernatant containing the plasma fraction was aliquoted in polyethylene tubes and stored at −20 °C. Liver, epididymal and abdominal adipose tissues were removed, rinsed with ice-cold NaCl solution (0.9%), weighed, frozen in liquid nitrogen, and stored at −80 °C until analysis.