Chinese Journal of Traumatology 2008; 11(6):352-358 Anti-inflammatory effect of erythropoietin pretreatment on cardiomyocytes with hypoxia/reoxygenation injury and the possible mechanism QIN Chuan , XIAO Ying-bin*, ZHONG Qian-jin , CHEN Lin and WANG Xue-feng Objective: To investigate the anti-inflammatory effect of erythropoietin (EPO) pretreatment on cardiomyocytes exposed to hypoxia/reoxygenation injury (H/R) and explore the possible mechanism Methods: The cultured neonatal rats’ ventricular cardiomyocytes were divided randomly into groups, control group (C group), EPO pretreatment group (E group), EPO and pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC) pretreatment group (EP group) and PDTC pretreatment group (P group) After 24 hours’ pretreatment, the cardiomyocytes were exposed to H/R After pretreatment and H/R, the expression of tumor necrosis factor- (TNF- ) gene in all the groups was detected by RT-PCR and Western blot The nuclear factor- B (NF- B) activity was detected by electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) and the inhibitor- B (I-B) protein level was detected by Western blot Results: The decrement of I- Bprotein and the increasing NF-B activity were found in cardiomyocytes pre- E rythropoietin (EPO) is a haematopoietic cytokine, which has been used to treat anemia Recently, it has been found that EPO can protect organs, tissues and cells, including nervous tissue, kidney, intestine, vascular endothelial cell, vascular smooth muscle cell and skin, against different detrimental factors This non-haematopoietic effect of EPO has been noticed by many researchers EPO’s cardiac protective effect has been reported in recent years, which is an encouraging finding for the study of cardiac protection in the clinical environment Anti-apoptosis and anti-inflammation are thought to be the two main mechanisms of this protective effect, but the associated signaling pathways need clarification In the present Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Xinqiao Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400037, China (Qin C, Xiao YB, Zhong QJ, Chen L and Wang XF) *Corresponding author: 86-13228685336, Email: qin1976qin@yahoo.com.cn treated with EPO before H/Rcompared to other groups (t=3.321, 4.183, P