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Updated: Sep 27, 2026
The Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy Model of Perinatal Ischemia
Published on: November 19, 2008
Erythropoietin prevents ischemia-reperfusion from inducing oxidative damage in fetal rat brain
Ihsan Solaroglu1, Ayse Solaroglu, Erkan Kaptanoglu
1Department of Neurosurgery, Ankara Numune Research and Educational Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to show the effect of erythropoietin on ischemia-reperfusion-induced oxidative damage in fetal rat brain.
Methods:
Fetal brain ischemia was induced by clamping the utero-ovarian artery bilaterally for 20 min, and reperfusion was achieved by removing the clamps for 30 min. The control group was made up of non-injured rats that were 19 days pregnant. In the ischemia-reperfusion group no treatment was given, while 0.4 ml of human serum albumin solution and 5,000 U/kg recombinant human erythropoietin (r-Hu-EPO) were administered in the vehicle and treatment groups 30 min before ischemia-reperfusion injury. Lipid peroxidation in the brain tissue was determined as the concentration of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) for each fetal rat. A one-way analysis of variance and the post-hoc test were used for statistical analysis.
Results:
TBARS increased to statistically significantly higher levels in fetal rat brain after ischemia-reperfusion injury than were found in the control group. Recombinant human erythropoietin prevented the increase in TBARS after ischemia-reperfusion injury.
Conclusion:
Recombinant human erythropoietin has been shown to have neuroprotective effect in intrauterine ischemia-reperfusion-induced fetal brain damage in rats.