Figure 1.

Erythropoietin improved cognitive function following neonatal hyperoxia. Motor-cognitive development was assessed by open field, novel object recognition, and Barnes maze starting at P30 (adolescent) and P90 (adult) after exposure to neonatal normoxia (21% oxygen (21%)) or hyperoxia (24 h, 80% oxygen (80%)) at P6 combined with i.p. administration of normal saline or 20,000 IU/kg Epo. (a) To test general motor activity animals were placed into the open field maze for 10 minutes. Movement of animals was tracked automatically by the software through three-point detection and the centre of the animals was analysed. Motor activity was expressed by the mean velocity and the total distance. (b) Cognitive function was assessed in the novel object recognition task presented as the exploration time at the novel object (N) versus familiar objects (F1 and F2). (c) Memory function was determined in the Barnes maze test expressed as the latency to find the trained escape hole after a 3-day training period. n = 8–10 rats/group. ^∗ p < 0.05, ^∗∗ p < 0.01, and ^∗∗∗ p < 0.001.