Fig. 6

FRA alleviated HS formation through ferroptosis in vivo. (A) Schedule of the different stages of the in vivo study. (B) Experimental schematic of FRA mitigated scar formation in a rabbit ear HS model. (C) Images of the wounds and the scars formed on day 0, 14 and 28 after treatment with various concentrations of FRA (100 µM and 300 µM) or FRA (300 µM) plus Fer-1 (2 µM) (scale bar = 18 mm). (D) Representative H&E staining, Masson Trichrome staining, and Sirius Red staining images of the wounds and the scars formed on day 14 and day 28 after different treatments. Scale bar, 1 mm in H&E staining images, 500 μm in Masson Trichrome staining images (top), 200 μm in Masson Trichrome staining images (enlarged) and 100 μm in Sirius Red staining images. (E) Quantification of the SEI, collagen density (%) based on Masson Trichrome staining and collagen density (%) based on Sirius Red staining on day 14 and day 28. (F) Immunohistochemical staining of Ki-67, α-SMA, GPX4 and CTSB on day 14 and day 28 after different treatments. Scale bar, 500 μm in the top images and 200 μm in the enlarged images. (G). Quantification of Ki-67-positive cells and relative expression levels of α-SMA, GPX4 and CTSB on day 14 and day 28 (n = 10, arbitrary units). The results are presented as the means ± SDs (n = 3 independent experiments unless otherwise specified). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ns = not significant