While many cytokines are known for their inflammatory action, there is a growing interest in the tissue-protective effects of some cytokines. The prototypic tissue-protective cytokine is EPO. Initially described as neuro-protective, it is beneficial in animal models of ischemic and other types of injury. Scientists had to overcome the notion that EPO had only erythropoietic actions, was only produced by the kidney, and that its receptor was only present in erythroid progenitor cells. The use of in vitro and in vivo disease models was essential to demonstrate the protective effects of EPO. Reproducible models will be needed for the further study of the mechanism of action of EPO and for the identification of other tissue-protective cytokines.
 In Tissue-Protective Cytokines: Methods and Protocols, expert researchers in the field detail the key models that have been used to characterize the tissue-protective actions of cytokines. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology¿ series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, provide step-by-step laboratory protocols, and key tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls.
 Thorough and intuitive, Tissue Protective Cytokines: Methods and Protocols aids scientists in continuing to study tissue-protection that will be a new field of interest of cytokine biology, both in discovering novel actions of known cytokines and in developing new drugs.
 

Erythropoietin and Engineered Innate Repair Activators.- Epo and Non-hematopoietic Cells: What Do We Know?.- Tissue Protective Cytokines: Structure and Evolution.- The Regenerative Activity of Interleukin-6.- Brain Ischemic Injury in Rodents: The Protective Effect of EPO.- Exper¿mental Traumat¿c Sp¿nal Cord Injury.- Erythropoietin as a Neuroprotectant for Neonatal Brain Injury: Animal Models.- Evaluating Effects of EPO in Rodent Behavioral Assays Related to Depression.- Erythropoietin and Cytoprotective Cytokines in Experimental Traumatic Brain Injury.- Therapeutic Efficacy of Erythropoietin in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis in Mice, a Model of Multiple Sclerosis.- Deciphering the Intracellular Signaling of Erythropoietin in Neuronal Cells.- Assessment of Allodynia Relief by Tissue-protective Molecules in a Rat Model of Nerve Injury-induced Neuropathic Pain.- Intra-Epidermal Nerve Fibres Density and Nociception in EPO-treated Type 1 Diabetic Rats with Peripheral Neuropathy.- ARA290 in a Rat Model of Inflammatory Pain.- In Vivo Angiogenic Activity of Erythropoietin.- Photoreceptor Degeneration in Mice: Adeno-associated Viral (AAV) Vector-Mediated Delivery of Erythropoietin.- Myocardial Infarction - Cardioprotection by Erythropoietin.- Using Plethysmography to Determine Erythropoietin's Impact on Neural Control of Ventilation.- Cerebral Malaria: Protection by Erythropoietin.