Recombinant human erythropoietin pretreatment attenuates heart ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats by suppressing the systemic inflammatory response.
BACKGROUND
Ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury may influence graft function after transplantation. Erythropoietin (EPO) attenuates I/R injury in various animal organs such as intestine, brain, and kidney.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effects of pretreatment with recombinant human EPO (rhEPO) on I/R-induced heart injury.


METHODS
A rat model of I/R injury was established by ligating the left descending coronary artery for 30 minutes, followed by reperfusion for 4 hours. Fifty Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 5 groups: sham operation; I/R; I/R+rhEPO, 100 U/kg; I/R+rhEPO, 1000 U/kg; and I/R+rhEPO, 5000 U/kg. Electrocardiograms were assessed continuously to note arrhythmia caused by reperfusion. Serum concentrations of interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha were measured at 2 and 4 hours after reperfusion.


RESULTS
The rhEPO-treated animals exhibited dosage-dependent significant reduction in the incidence of ventricular arrhythmia caused by reperfusion, and markedly decreased serum concentrations of IL-6, IL-8, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (P < .05) compared with the I/R group (P < .05).


CONCLUSIONS
The rhEPO attenuates myocardial I/R injury in rats, at least in part related to inhibition of the system inflammatory response.
Shen
Y
Y
Department of Cardio-thoracic Surgery, Jinling Hospital, Clinical Medicine School, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
Wang
Y
Y
Li
D
D
Wang
C
C
Xu
B
B
Dong
G
G
Huang
H
H
Jing
H
H
D000818:Animals; D004921:Erythropoietin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood; D016209:Interleukin-8 / Q000097:blood; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015428:Myocardial Reperfusion Injury / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D015427:Reperfusion Injury / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000097:blood
D015850:Interleukin-6; D016209:Interleukin-8; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D004921:Erythropoietin