FIGURE 7.

EPO protected against lung injury through the EPOR/JAK2/STAT3 and NF-κB signaling pathways. EMP9 (an EPOR antagonist, 1 mg/mouse), Fedratinib (a JAK2 inhibitor, 100 mg/kg), NSC 74859 (a STAT3 inhibitor, 5 mg/kg), BAY 11-7082 (an NF-κB inhibitor, 20 mg/kg), and DMSO (solvent of the inhibitors) were injected into the peritoneal cavity 30 min before EPO treatment. Then, EPO (5 U/g) was injected into the peritoneal cavity of mice after LPS (15 mg/kg) stimulation. The mice were sacrificed 8 h later, and the sera were obtained to measure the concentrations of IL-1β and IL-18 (A,B) by ELISA. The BALF was obtained to measure the total protein concentrations (F). In addition, the lung tissues were harvested to measure the lung wet/dry ratio (E), and the concentrations of IL-1β, IL-18, and MPO (C,D,G) were measured by ELISA. The data are presented as the mean ± SD. The differences among groups were assessed by one-way ANOVA and the post hoc test (Turkey method) was applied to investigate the differences one by one. n = 8 per group.