“…Aqueous AGE was obtained from Wakunaga of America (Mission Viejo, CA, USA) with the Kyolic brand name, and its content of the benchmark component SAC measured (see the analysis below). FruArg was synthesized by refluxing L-arginine and D-glucose according to the published protocol ( Figure 1 ) [32] , and its purity and stability measured by thin layer chromatograph as previously described [14] , 1 H- and 13 C NMR spectroscopy, as well as electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Dithiothreitol (DTT), iodoacetamide, 2-mercaptoethanol, neocuproine, [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT), broad-spectrum NO synthase (NOS) inhibitor N -ω-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester hydrochloride (L-NAME), protein inhibitor cocktail, LPS (rough strains) from Escherichia coli F583 (Rd mutant) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA).…”