**3.3. Quantification of NO, TNF-α and IL-6**

TNF-α and IL-6 concentrations in supernatants from cultured cells and plasma were analyzed with ELISA [6]. Samples were evaluated with rat cytokine-specific BD OptEIA ELISA kits (BD Biosciences, USA) according to the manufacturer's protocol. NO production was analyzed as accumulation of nitrite in the culture medium. Nitrite in culture supernatants was determined with Griess reagent (Sigma-Aldrich, USA) as previously described [6].
