The arthrometer had a design similar to KT 2000 system (MedMetric, San Diego, USA) and was equipped with an S-Beam load cell (
DBBP series, Bongishin, China), a rectilinear displacement transducer (PY3, Gerfran, Italy), and a data acquisition card (6024E, National Instruments, USA).
Female rats were treated with 0 or 1,000 mg/kg of either DEHP, DBP, DPP, or dibutyl benzyl phthalate (
DBBP) for 8-10 days over their estrous cycle under the same experimental conditions that were used to examine in vivo effects of DEHP (Davis et al.