2.9. Morris Water Maze (MWM) test
On the twenty ninth day after FeCl3 injection, MWM test was carried out to evaluate the effects of Fer-1 on the spatial memory performance as previously described (Mao et al., 2014). For short, the water maze pool (120 cm in diameter) was filled with water with the temperature at 24 ± 2°C. During training trials, mice were subjected to find the hidden platform (10 cm in diameter), which was located in the center of one quadrant and hidden 1 cm under the water surface for 5 consecutive days. The mice from each group experienced three consecutive daily training trials for 5 days, with an inter-trial interval more than 1 h. In each trial, the escape latency (s) and the mean path length (cm) to find the platform were analyzed. Swimming speed was measured by dividing the path length by the time to find the platform. For probe trials, the platform was removed 24 h after the last training trial. Passing times, which referred to the number of times the mice crossed the once hidden platform, were measured within 60 s.