Patients with chronic pain often complain about memory impairments. Experimental studies have shown neuroprotective effects of Carbamylated erythropoietin (Cepo-Fc) in the treatment of cognitive dysfunctions. However, little is currently known about its precise molecular mechanisms in a model of inflammatory pain. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate neuroprotective effects of Cepo-Fc against cognitive impairment induced by the inflammatory model of Complete Freund's Adjuvant (CFA). Carbamylated erythropoietin was administrated Intraperitoneally (i.p) on the day CFA injection, continued for a 21-days period. After conducting the behavioral tests (thermal hyperalgesia and novel object recognition test), western blot and ELISA were further preformed on days 0, 7, and 21. The results of this study indicate that Cepo-Fc can effectively reverse the CFA induced thermal hyperalgesia and recognition memory impairment. Additionally, Cepo-Fc noticeably decreased the hippocampal microglial expression, production of hippocampal IL-1β, and hippocampal apoptosis and necroptosis induced by the inflammatory pain. Therefore, our findings suggest that neuroprotective effects of Cepo-Fc in the treatment of pain related recognition memory impairment may be mediated through reducing hippocampal microglial expression as well as IL-1β production.

患有慢性疼痛的患者经常抱怨记忆障碍。实验研究表明，氨甲酰化促红细胞生成素(Cepo-Fc) 在治疗认知功能障碍方面具有神经保护作用。然而，目前对其在炎症性疼痛模型中的精确分子机制知之甚少。因此，本研究旨在研究 Cepo-Fc 对完全弗氏佐剂 (CFA) 炎症模型诱导的认知障碍的神经保护作用。在 CFA 注射当天腹膜内 (ip) 施用氨甲酰化促红细胞生成素，持续 21 天。在进行行为测试（热痛觉过敏和新物体识别测试）后，蛋白质印迹在第0、7和21天进一步进行ELISA。本研究结果表明Cepo-Fc可以有效逆转CFA引起的热痛觉过敏和识别记忆障碍。此外，Cepo-Fc 显着降低了炎症性疼痛诱导的海马小胶质细胞表达、海马 IL-1β 的产生以及海马细胞凋亡和坏死性凋亡。因此，我们的研究结果表明，Cepo-Fc 在治疗疼痛相关的识别记忆障碍中的神经保护作用可能是通过减少海马小胶质细胞的表达以及 IL-1β 的产生来介导的。