Yafteh

Background : The Alzheimer is a common progressive and degenerative disease which causes dementia and ruin of brain cells especially in Hippocampus region. Recently, it has been appeared that Erythropoietin with its neural-protective action causes an improvement in cognitive functions during this disease. This study aims to find an alternative approach instead of traditional intraventricular injection to deliver Erythropoietin into the brain without passing the blood-brain barrier. Materials and Methods: In order to induce Alzheimer in rats, the STZ was injected in lateral ventricles of brain. Two weeks after Alzheimer induction, different doses of erythropoietin were injected in sisternamagna for treatment of the disease with decreased side effects. After the treatment period, all rats were tested by passive avoidence learning test using shuttle box, and measuring of blood hematocrit. Results: Although the Erythropoietin did not have significant influence on improvement of memory and learning phenomena in both control and sham groups, it resulted in a significant difference in improvement of the disease comparing STZ group that this treatment was accompanied with decreased hematocrit than the group receiving 5000 U/Kg doses. Conclusion: These results suggested that injection of STZ in lateral ventricles of brain contributes to extreme damage in memory and learning similar to Alzheimer on the other hand, Erythropoietin prevents such a damage accompanied with decreased hematocrit.