2.2. Preparation of PTE mouse model and drug treatment
Male C57BL/6J mice (6-8 weeks of age) weighing 18-22 g were obtained from the Experimental Animal Center of Central South University. The mice were housed in a specific pathogen-free environment and provided with free food and water. All of the animal procedures followed the National Institutes of Health guidelines and the experimental procedures were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee of Xiangya Hospital of Central South University. PTE mouse model was prepared according to our previous descriptions (Li et al., 2019). In brief, the mice were anesthetized with intraperitoneal injection of 10% (v/w) chloral hydrate and carefully placed in a stereotaxic apparatus. 5 μl of a 50 mM solution of FeCl3 dissolved in phosphate buffer saline (PBS) was stereotaxically injected into the somatosensory cortex (coordinates AP-1.3 mm; ML-2.0 mm; V-1.6 mm) within 5 min using an injector cannula (62004, RWD Life Science) while the control group received an equal volume of PBS. Thereafter, we allocated the mice into four different groups as follows: Control group (injection with equal volume of PBS) (n=6); FeCl3 group (injection with 50 mM FeCl3) (n=6); FeCl3+Fer-1 group (injection with 50 mM FeCl3 and 1 pmol Fer-1) (n=6) and Fer-1 group (injection with 1 pmol Fer-1) (n=6).