  NGC3379 is a well studied nearby elliptical for which optical investigations
have claimed a little dark matter content, or even no dark matter. Recently,
its total mass profile M(r) has been derived by exploiting Chandra observations
of its extended and X-ray emitting interstellar medium, based on the hypothesis
of hydrostatic equilibrium for the hot gas. The resulting total mass within the
effective radius Re has been claimed to be a few times larger than found by
optical studies. Here we show that part of the discrepancy can be due to an
underestimate of the optically derived mass, and the remaining discrepancy of a
factor of ~2 can be explained by deviations from hydrostatic equilibrium of the
hot gas. By using hydrodynamical simulations tailored to reproduce the observed
hot gas properties of NGC3379, and by assuming as input for the simulations the
total mass profile derived optically, we show that i) the hot gas at the
present time has X-ray properties consistent with those observed only if it is
outflowing over most of the galactic body, and ii) an overestimate of M of the
same size found in the recent X-ray analysis is recovered when assuming
hydrostatic equilibrium. We also show that the hot gas is outflowing even for a
dark matter fraction within Re as large as derived with the standard X-ray
procedure based on the hydrostatic equilibrium assumption, which shows the
unapplicability of the method for this galaxy. Finally, we find that the whole
range of dark mass amount and distribution allowed for by optical studies is
compatible with a hot gas flow with the observed X-ray properties.
