Fig. 3.

DFO treatment alleviated IR-induced ferroptosis and intestinal injury in C57BL/6J mice exposed to 14 Gy TAI. (A) Experimental scheme. The mice were intraperitoneally injected with vehicle (PBS) or DFO (100 mg/kg) for 3 consecutive days before and 1 day after 14Gy TAI. Small intestinal samples were collected 3.5 days post-TAI. Survival of irradiated mice was monitored for up to 30 days post-TAI. (B) Intestinal Fe content of vehicle (PBS) or DFO (100 mg/kg)-treated mice at days 0 and 3.5 after 14 Gy TAI as determined by ICP-MS. (C) Kaplan-Meier survival curves of C57BL/6J mice (n = 10 for IR + Vehicle group and n = 11 for IR + DFO group). (D) Representative images of H&E-stained intestinal sections from vehicle or DFO-treated mice at days 0 and 3.5 after 14 Gy-TAI (Scale bar = 200 μm). (E) Bar graph comparing villus heights in different groups (n = 5/group). All villi around a circumference were measured per sample. (F) Representative IHC images of intestinal sections of vehicle and DFO-treated mice at 3.5 days after TAI showing Ki67 expression (Scale bar = 100 μm). (G) Histograms showing number of Ki67⁺ cells per crypt determined from panel (F) (n = 5/group). Bar graph showing the levels of MDA (H), PTGS2 mRNA (I) and GSH (J) in small intestinal tissues of C57BL/6J mice at 3.5 days post 14 Gy TAI. n = 5 for each treatment. All data are presented as mean ± S.D. ns, p ≥ 0.05; ∗, p < 0.05; ∗∗, p < 0.01; ∗∗∗, p < 0.001.