9:00 AM, 3 d/wk. No ip injections were given during the remaining 4 days each week. Twenty-four hours after their last saline or alcohol injection, rats were rendered unconscious by CO2 inhalation and killed by decapitation. Bone samples (lumbar vertebrae) were removed from each animal, dissected free of all soft tissue and either snap frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at −80°C for subsequent molecular analysis, or wrapped in saline-soaked gauze and stored at − 20°C for bone mineral density and biomechanical analysis.
