Fig. 6

Surgery-induced hippocampal-dependent memory impairment is mitigated by DFO. Mice after surgery showed significant longer latency in MWM acquisition trials compared to naïve and sham-operated controls (a). Moreover, in probe trials, mice with surgery spent less time in target quadrant (b) and had fewer crossings over platform location (c) compared to controls. Contextual fear conditioning memories was impaired in mice after surgery compared to naïve and sham-operated controls (d). DFO pretreatment significantly improved the performance of mice in MWM and FC tests after surgery. n = 8/group, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 vs control group, ^# P < 0.05 vs NS + surgery group, ^$ P < 0.05, ^$$ P < 0.01 vs sham group. Data are expressed as mean ± SD. DFO deferoxamine, NS normal saline