Turkish Journal of
GERIATRICS

Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Tıbbi Biyoloji ve Genetik Anabilim Dalı, İzmir
Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Fizyoloji Anabilim Dalı - İzmir Erythropoietin (Epo) is a cytokine-hormone that has been shown to be therapeutic in experimental models of acut and chronic central nervous system disorders such as stroke, Parkinsonism. The neuroprotective effect of this agent has also been determined in invitro neuronal injury models such as serum or growth factor deprivation, kainic acid or glutamate-induced neurotoxicity, and hypoxia. In this study, it was aimed that whether Epo has inhibitory effect on cell injury induced by amyloid-beta peptide in PC 12 cell line cultures. Rat pheocromocytoma PC 12 cell line was used in experiments. The day after seeding recombinant human or murine Epo was added to cultures at varying concentration of 0.1-1.0 U/ml. Next day 25-35, 1-40, 40-1 and 1-42 fragments of amyloid-beta peptide was added at a concentration of 1-10 mM. After 48 or 72 hours incubation cell viability was evaluated by 3 (4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and cytotoxicity was determined by lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) test. Apostain and DAPI nucleus staining was performed evaluate apoptotic cell death. The results of this study showed that Epo inhibits cell injury induced by amyloid-beta peptide fragments in vitro in a dose dependent manner. Apostain staining showed that Epo decreases apoptotic cell death. Amyloid beta peptide is a toxic agent that has been implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. The in vitro toxic effect of this agent has been shown in recent studies. The results of our study shows that Epo partially prevents this toxic effect by inhibiting apoptotic process and might be used in the treatment of chronic neurodegenerative processes. Keywords : Erythropoietin, Amyloid-beta peptide, PC12 cell line, Apoptosis, Neurotoxicity