A New Horizon in Neuroprotection: Erythropoietin

 It has long been believed that neural cells do not have the potentials to proliferate nor regenerate in case they encounter diverse sorts of insults. As stroke and traumatic brain injuries, as well as other neurological disorders, have increased worldwide, there is a need for measures to decrease the mortality and disabilities that may ensue. During the last 25 years in animal, ex-vivo, in-vitro, preclinical and even in some clinical studies, cell protective effects of erythropoietin, a growth hormone used in erythropoiesis, was clarified. Near 270 articles including reviews and animal, in-vitro, ex-vivo and clinically case-control studies downloaded from science direct and pubmed websites were studied. A great number of studies have elucidated that neurological insults in their nature eventually follow a relatively common inflammatory cascade associated with hypoxic, hypoglycemic, oxidative and other stresses deleterious to neural cells. Erythropoietin and its receptor are distributed extensively in the nervous system and  participate in many cell-protective anti-apoptotic pathways in neural tissue.