Abstract:

BACKGROUND: In recent years, animal experiments and in vitro cell culture studies confirmed that erythropoietin (EPO) has neuroprotective effect on cerebral ischemia, but the mechanism is not yet clearly.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the neuroprotective effect of EPO on cerebral ischemia via observing cytologic morphology at damaged area and detecting concentrations of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in brain tissues.

METHODS: Wistar rats were prepared for focal ischemia-reperfusion models by suture method. At 2 hours after model preparation, 3 000 U/kg normal saline and 1000 U/kg EPO were peritoneally injected into rats. At the same time, a sham-surgery group was established. Pathological changes of brain tissues were detected by hematoxylin-eosin staining, the SOD activity and MDA concentration were measured by xanthine oxidase and thiobarbituric acid methods at 24 hours after ischemia-reperfusion injury.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:The morphological results demonstrated that, compared with the normal saline group, the survival of cortical nerve cells were greater in the high-dose EPO group with lighter damage. The SOD activity in the high-dose EPO, low-dose EPO groups was obviously greater than that in the sham-surgery and normal saline groups (P < 0.05), but the MAD concentration was smaller in the high-dose EPO and low-dose EPO groups (P < 0.05). The SOD activity was significantly higher in the high-dose EPO group than the low-dose EPO group, but the MAD were significantly lower than the low-dose EPO group (P < 0.05). The intraperitoneal injection of EPO can increase the survival number of nerve cells, significantly improve the pathological changes of tissues, this protective effect may be achieved via removing free radicals and antagonizing oxidative damage