Animals
Male Sprague Dawley rats (Charles River Laboratories, France) weighing
325-350g upon arrival, were housed in a temperature and
humidity-controlled environment and maintained on a 12-h light/12-h dark
cycle (on at 07:00 am). Animals were housed two per cage from arrival to
surgery and one per cage after surgery. Experiments were performed
during the light phase. Animals had ad libitum access to food and
water in the homecage. All experiments were conducted in accordance with
the European Union directives (2010/63/EU) for the care of laboratory
animals and all experimental protocols were approved by the local ethics
committee (COMETHEA, n°7147).