title: The effect of phlebotomy on serum erythropoietin levels in normal healthy subjects.
abstract: We evaluated endogenous serum erythropoietin (Epo) levels in 14 normal subjects (eight males and six females) after a single 400-ml phlebotomy. The subjects were followed up for 56 days. The hemoglobin (Hb) values of both males and females decreased to a nadir on days 3 to 7 post-phlebotomy. Hb values gradually increased, but did not completely recover to pre-phlebotomy levels by day 56. Serum Epo levels increased after 6 h post-phlebotomy, to 20.1 +/- 5.4 (mU/ml) in males and 20.7 +/- 7.0 in females, from the pre-phlebotomy levels of 14.6 +/- 4.0 in males and 13.4 +/- 4.1 in females, respectively. Epo levels continued to increase to peak levels of 25.5 +/- 6.3 in males and 28.7 +/- 11.5 in females on days 7 to 14 and thereafter decreased until day 56. Thus, the Epo response to a 400-ml phlebotomy was relatively small in magnitude and was not sufficient to initiate a significant increase in erythropoiesis. This finding suggests that the administration of recombinant human erythropoietin (rHu-Epo) may be effective for the prompt correction of anemia induced by autologous blood donation and for increasing the volume of predonated autologous blood.
authors.affiliation: Blood Transfusion Service, Saitama Medical Center, Saitama Medical School, Japan.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Maeda
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hitomi
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hirata
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tohyama
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Suwata
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kamata
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fujino
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Murata
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001772:Blood Cell Count; D001815:Bloodletting; D004920:Erythropoiesis; D004921:Erythropoietin / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D007501:Iron / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D012016:Reference Values; D012156:Reticulocytes
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins; D004921:Erythropoietin; D007501:Iron