19microRNA
Three liver tissue samples from each group (upper left anterior lobe of liver) were used for total RNA isolation according to the manufacturers protocol. The integrity and purity of the isolated RNA were determined by 1% agarose gel electrophoresis and a NanoPhotometer (IMPLEN, CA, USA) respectively. RNA concentration was measured using Qubit RNA Assay Kit in the Qubit 2.0 Flurometer (Life Technologies, CA, USA). The quality of the samples was further assessed using the RNA Nano 6000 Assay Kit of the Agilent Bioanalyzer 2118 system (Agilent Technologies, CA, USA) to ensure suitability for high-throughput sequencing.