RESUMO
Objective To study the protective effect of recombination human erythropoietin (rhEPO) on the apoptosis of retinal neurons induced by glutamate.Methods The primary retinal neurons of postnatal SD rats were cultured in vitro for 7 days and divided into 3 groups :control group ,glutamate group and rhEPO pretreatment group.The neurons in the rhEPO pre-treatment group were afterwards allocated to three subgroups in terms of different rhEPO treatments (0.15 ,0.30 or 0.50 U/mL rhEPO for 12 h).Those in glutamate group and rhEPO pretreatment group were treated with glutamate at the concentration of 20μmol/L for 30 min for establishment of the apoptosis model.Twenty-four h later ,the apoptosis index (AI) was assayed by TUNEL and the expressions of BCL-xL mRNA and protein was detected by RT-PCR and immunocytochemistry respective-ly.Results The AI was significantly higher in the glutamate group than in the control group (P<0.01).The AI was signifi-cantly reduced ,and the expression level of BCL-xL mRNA and protein was markedly dose-dependently increased in the rhEPO pretreatment groups compared with the glutamate group (P<0.01).Conclusion The rhEPO pretreatment can inhibit the glu-tamate-induced apoptosis of retinal neurons by up-regulating the expression of BCL-xL .