Statistics
The data are expressed as the means ± SEM. We performed the experimental
procedures and treatment and data analyses under blinded conditions. To
reduce the baseline variability between independent experiments, we
normalized the quantitative analyses of immunoblots and mRNA expression.
The data were normalized as the fold change over the mean of the
control. We compared 2 groups by Student’s t test; 3 or more
different groups were evaluated by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA),
And if F reached significance two post hoc tests were used: the Dunnett
post hoc test when comparing each group with control, or the Sidak post
hoc test whenever a multiple group comparison was necessary. For in vivo
studies, all groups were initially designed to contain 8 or 6 mice. We
used nonparametric methods (Kruskal–Wallis test followed by Dunn’s post
hoc tests when F reached significance). P ˂ 0.05 was considered
significant. We performed statistical analyses of the data using SPSS
v18.0 software.