Table 1.

Effects of Quercetin in comparison to DFO on serum iron indices in iron overloaded rats.

Groups	Serum iron ( μ mol/L)	TIBC ( μ mol/L)	TS%	HEPC   (ng/ml)	Ferritin   (ng/ml)	NTBI   (μmol/L)
Control	18.50±0.640	38.52±0.168	48.02±1.474	4.97±0.07	24.87±0.52	1.83±0.140
DFO	18.40±0.590	38.83±0.293	47.82±1.259	4.71±0.08	23.61±0.54	1.51 ±0.257
Quercetin	18.25±0.602	38.17±0.333	47.42±1.265	4.99±0.08	23.61±0.55	1.54±0.076
Iron	69.17±3.16 a	73.43±2.68a	92.48±2.091 a	26.41±0.24a	61.83±1.45a	20.67±1.78a
Iron + DFO	21.53±1.25b	40.00±0.516b	53.89±2.335 b	10.59±0.38b	30.24±0.51b	2.05±0.292b
Iron+Quercetin	20.80± 0.957b,c	39.51±0.541b,d	52.64±2.321b,d	10.49±0.25b,c	32.31±1.37b,c	2.06±0.856b,c
P-Value	0.001	0.001	0.001	0.001	0.001	0.001
LSD 0.05	3.5301	3.120	4.9601	0.624	2.651	1.7504

Values are expressed as means ±standard error (n=6), LSD: least significance difference DFO: Deferoxamine, TIBC: total iron binding capacity, HEPC: hepcidin, and NTBI: nontransferrin bound iron.

a: highly significant difference as compared to control group (P< 0.001).

b: highly significant difference as compared to iron overload group (P< 0.001).

c: non-significant difference as compared to iron + DFO group (P > 0.05).

d: significant difference as compared to iron + DFO group (P < 0.05).