Blood pressure measurement by tail-cuff plethysmography
Systolic blood pressure was determined using a computerized tail-cuff system (Visitech, USA) in conscious mice. Experiments were performed between the hours of 8 and 12 am. The animal tails were passed through a cylindrical latex tail-cuff and taped down to reduce movement. Twenty readings were taken per mouse of which the first 5 readings were discarded. The remaining 15 readings were used to calculate the mean systolic blood pressure and in each mouse.