Fig. 3

Effects of DFO on cell viability, ROS levels and caspase 3/7 activation. a Viability of cells treated with DFO 0, 50, 100, 500, or 100 μM for 24, 48 or 72 h measured by MTT assay. b ROS levels detected by incubation with DCFH-DA (b) and the protein levels of cleaved form of caspase 3 (c) in cells treated with FAC 3 or 100 μM or DFO 100 μM for 24 h. Levels of caspase 3/7 activation in cells either untreated or treated with 100 μM DFO, which were measured using caspase 3/7-Glo assay kit (d). Values not sharing the same letter were significantly different (p < 0.05) by ANOVA. Student’s t test was performed between the groups. *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001. All experiments were performed at least three independent times