Chronic erythropoietin treatment affects different molecular pathways of diabetic cardiomyopathy in mouse

Background Recent studies in mice experimental models with acute ischaemic injury revealed that erythropoietin (EPO) has numerous tissue-protective effects in the heart, brain and kidneys. We therefore explored the tissue-protective properties of chronic EPO treatment in an experimental model of the db/db mouse with diabetic heart injury.

Material and methods We randomly treated 11 db/db mice with placebo (saline), 0·4 μg of the continuous erythropoietin receptor activator (CERA) per week (n = 11) or 1·2 μg CERA per week (n = 11) for 14 weeks, and analysed cardiac tissue. The lower CERA dose was a non-haematologically effective dose, whereas the second increased the haematocrit.

Results Compared with mice in the placebo group, CERA-treated mice had a reduction in TGF-β₁ and collagen I expression in cardiac tissue (P < 0·01 vs. higher dose CERA). In addition, an increased expression of the pro-survival intracellular pathway p-AKT was observed (P < 0·05 vs. higher dose CERA). The values for the lower C.E.R.A had an intermediate nonsignificant effect. Furthermore, we were able to show that atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) expression was increased in both CERA groups.

Conclusions Chronic treatment with CERA protects cardiac tissue in diabetic animals, i.e. it inhibits molecular pathways of cardiac fibrosis, and the effects are dose-dependent.