title: Survival of hippocampal neurons in culture upon hypoxia: effect of erythropoietin.
abstract: The potential of erythropoietin (EPO) to reduce hypoxia-induced cell death has been investigated in 5-day-old primary cultures of rat postnatal hippocampal neurons. Application of EPO (100 pM) at the start of hypoxia resulted in a significant reduction of neuronal death (33.0 +/- 7.5% in cells incubated with EPO vs 56.75 +/- 7.3% in non-treated cells; n = 4, p < 0.021). Similiar results were obtained upon application of cycloheximide (CHX; 1 microM) simultaneously with hypoxia (34.75 +/- 5.6% vs 56.75 +/- 7.3% with and without CHX, respectively, n = 4, p < 0.035), indicating that hypoxia-induced neuronal death is an active, protein synthesis-dependent process. Both, EPO and EPO receptor (EPOR) were found to be expressed after hypoxia in hippocampal neurons in vitro and in vivo. These results demonstrate for the first time that EPO can reverse hypoxia-induced neuronal death when applied simultaneously with the hypoxic stimulus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, George-August-University, Goettingen, Germany.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lewczuk
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hasselblatt
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kamrowski-Kruck
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heyer
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Unzicker
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Sirén
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ehrenreich
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D015687:Cell Hypoxia / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003513:Cycloheximide / Q000494:pharmacology; D004921:Erythropoietin / Q000235:genetics / Q000494:pharmacology*; D016222:Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 / Q000494:pharmacology; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D017467:Receptors, Erythropoietin / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D017467:Receptors, Erythropoietin; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D016222:Fibroblast Growth Factor 2; D004921:Erythropoietin; D003513:Cycloheximide