Fig. 3

The anti-tumor effect of ferrichrome was greater than that of 5-FU or cisplatin. An SRB assay for SW620 revealed that the tumor-suppressive effect of ferrichrome was superior to that of 5-FU and cisplatin (a). Ferrichrome (0.5 mg/kg) and 5-FU (0.5 mg/kg) significantly suppressed the tumor growth in comparison to the control, and the tumor volume of the ferrichrome treated group also significantly decreased in comparison to the 5-FU treated group (b). An SRB assay showed that the anti-tumor effect of 0.2 µg/mL of ferrichrome was equal or greater than that of 0.2 µg/mL of 5-FU or cisplatin, and the combination of ferrichrome and 5-FU greatly reduced the density of SW620 cells compared to treatment with 5-FU alone (c, d). *p < 0.05 by a two-way ANOVA followed by Ryan’s post hoc test. The error bars show the standard deviation (S.D.)