**2.6. Statistical analysis**

Data are shown as the mean ± SEM. All results were compared to control animals (C), as well as to the Cd-exposed animals (Cd). For all our experiment, a two-way ANOVA was used to analyze the differences between groups, followed by a Dunnett's test with a threshold of significance of p < 0.05 and p < 0.01 to detect specific differences, using a statistical software package (XLSTAT version 2009.1.1).
