Activation of the A 2A adenosine receptor (A 2A R) during reperfusion of various tissues has been found to markedly reduce ischemia-reperfusion injury. In this study, we used bone marrow transplantation (BMT) to create chimeric mice that either selectively lack or selectively express the A 2A R on bone marrow-derived cells. Bolus ip injection of the selective A 2A agonist, 4-{3-[6-amino-9-(5-cyclopropylcarbamoyl-3, 4-dihydroxy-tetrahydro-furan-2-yl)-9H-purin-2-yl]-prop-2-ynyl}-piperidine-1-carboxylic acid methyl ester (ATL313; 3 μg/kg), at the time of reperfusion protects wild-type (wt) mice from liver ischemia-reperfusion injury. ATL313 also protects wt/wt (donor/recipient BMT mouse chimera) and wt/knockout chimera but produces modest protection of knockout/wt chimera as assessed by alanine aminotransferase activity, induction of cytokine transcripts (RANTES, IFN-γ-inducible protein-10, IL-1α, IL-1-β, IL-1Rα, IL-18, IL-6, and IFN-γ), or histological criteria. ATL313, which is highly selective for the A 2A R, produces more liver protection of chimeric BMT mice than 4-{3-[6-amino-9-(5-ethylcarbamoyl-3, 4-dihydroxy-tetrahydro-furan-2-yl)-9H-purin-2-yl]-prop-2-ynyl}-cyclohexanecarboxylic acid methyl ester, which is rapidly metabolized in mice to produce 4-{3-[6-amino-9-(5-ethylcarbamoyl-3, 4-dihydroxy-tetrahydro-furan-2-yl)-9H-purin-2-yl]-prop-2-ynyl}-cyclohexanecarboxylic acid, which has similar affinity for the A 2A R and the proinflammatory A 3 adenosine receptor. GFP chimera mice were created to show that vascular endothelial cells in the injured liver do not account for liver protection because they are not derived by transdifferentiation of bone marrow precursors. The data suggest that activation of the A 2A R on bone marrow-derived cells is primarily responsible for protecting the liver from reperfusion injury.