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About the Authors:
Vesna Borovnik-Lesjak
Affiliation: Resuscitation Institute at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, North Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Kasen Whitehouse
Affiliation: Resuscitation Institute at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, North Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Alvin Baetiong
Affiliation: Resuscitation Institute at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, North Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Yang Miao
Affiliation: Resuscitation Institute at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, North Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Brian M. Currie
Affiliation: Resuscitation Institute at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, North Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Sathya Velmurugan
Affiliation: Resuscitation Institute at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, North Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Jeejabai Radhakrishnan
Affiliation: Department of Medicine and Resuscitation Institute at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, North Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Raúl J. Gazmuri
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliation: Department of Medicine, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, and Resuscitation Institute at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, and Critical Care Medicine at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center, North Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Introduction
Acute hemorrhage resulting from traumatic injury is responsible for a high percentage of death in military personnel engaged in combat operations [1]. A recent report including 4,596 battlefield fatalities from Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom between October 2001 and June 2011 showed that 87.3% of all injury related deaths occurred before arriving to a medical treatment facility [2]. Of these deaths, 24.3% were deemed potentially survivable with acute mortality associated with hemorrhage in 90.9%. The current acute management of hemorrhage focuses on hemostasis, hemodynamic stabilization, and rapid transfer to a medical treatment facility.
Erythropoietin (EPO) − a hormone best known for its effect on red blood cell production − has been shown to protect organs and tissues from ischemia and reperfusion injury including the heart [3]–[7], brain [8], [9], spinal cord [10], [11], kidney [12]–[14], liver [13]–[15], and skin [16], [17]. We have reported beneficial effects of EPO for resuscitation from cardiac arrest in animal models [18]–[20] and in human victims of sudden cardiac arrest [21]. These effects were in part associated with non-genomic activation of mitochondrial...