The protective mechanism of erythropoietin on spinal cord injury resulted from ischemia-reperfusion in rabbits

Objective:To investigate the protective effects of erythropoietin (EPO)treatment on spinal cord injury resulted from ischemia-reperfusion and to explore its possible mechanism.Method:The spinal cord ischemia-reprefusion model were made by occluding infrarenal abdominal aorta below the origin of the erenal artery for 20 minutes in rabbits.The injuries of spinal cord were estimated by the scores of neurological function and histopathology.The immunohistochemistry and TUNEL assay were still used in this study.Result:The neurological function was improved significantly after treatment with EPO and EPO could attenuate the pathologic injury due to spinal cord ischemic-reperfusion,The apoptosis index of the spinal anterior horn cells in the EPO group was decreased significantly in control group (P0.01).The expression of bc 1~2 protein was increased (P0.01)while the expression of the bax protein was decreased (P0.01)in EPO group.Conclusion:The neurrological functions and pathologic expression on spinal cord injury resulted from ischemia-reprefusion are attenuated significantly after treatment with EPO,The mechanism is possibly related to the expressions of bcl-2 and bax proteins.