Rats were killed by decapitation within the same 2-hr time frame over 2 days with equal number of animals from each group being killed on each day to minimize differences in time of sacrifice and dissection, and maintain the experimental balance across groups. During the 7th and 8th weeks, the rats in the MSA group dissected on the 2nd day had ethanol access moved to Tuesday through Saturday to preserve the 5-day a week schedule. The head was immediately placed in a cold box maintained at -15°C, where the brain was rapidly removed and placed on a glass plate for dissection. All equipment used to obtain tissue were treated with RNAse Zap (Ambion, Inc. Austin, TX) to prevent RNA degradation. The ACB was dissected according to the coordinates of Paxinos and Watson (1998). Briefly, the ACB was dissected from a 2-mm section generated by a coronal cut at 2 mm anterior to the optic chiasm (Bregma 1.70 mm) and a coronal cut at the optic chiasm (Bregma −0.26 mm). Dissected tissue was immediately homogenized in Trizol reagent (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA)
