It is not well-known yet how granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) affects nonischemic cardiomyopathy, though its beneficial effects on acute myocardial infarction are well-established. We hypothesize that G-CSF beneficially might affect nonischemic cardiomyopathy through the direct cardioprotective effects. Here, we show that a single injection of doxorubicin (DOX, 15 mg/kg) induced left ventricular dilatation and dysfunction in mice within 2 weeks, and that these effects were significantly attenuated by human recombinant G-CSF (100 microg/kg/day for 5 days). G-CSF also protected hearts against DOX-induced cardiomyocyte atrophy/degeneration, fibrosis, inflammatory cell infiltration and down regulation of GATA-4 and sarcomeric proteins, myosin heavy chain, troponin I and desmin, both in vivo and in vitro. Cardiac cyclooxygenase-2 was upregulated and G-CSF receptor was downregulated in DOX-induced cardiomyopathy, but both of those effects were largely reversed by G-CSF. No DOX-induced apoptotic effects were seen, nor were there any changes in tumor necrosis factor-alpha or transforming growth factor-beta1 levels. Among downstream mediators of G-CSF receptor signaling, DOX-induced cardiomyopathy involved inactivation of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK); the ERK inactivation was reversed by G-CSF. Inhibition of ERK activation, but not cyclooxygenase-2 inhibition, completely abolished beneficial effect of G-CSF on cardiac function. G-CSF did not promote differentiation of bone marrow cells into cardiomyocytes according to the experiment using green fluorescent protein-chimeric mice, and inhibition of CXCR4+ cell homing using AMD3100 did not diminish the effect of G-CSF. Finally, G-CSF was also effective when administered after cardiomyopathy was established. In conclusion, these findings imply the therapeutic usefulness of G-CSF mainly through restoring ERK activation against DOX-induced nonischemic cardiomyopathy.