Correlation between erythropoietic activity and body growth rate in hypertransfused polycythemic growing rats as the result of an erythropoietin-dependent operating mechanism.

The established relationship between erythropoietic activity and body growth rate in the polycythemic growing rat could be the result of either an erythropoietin (EPO)-dependent or an EPO-independent operating mechanism. The present study was thus undertaken to elucidate the nature of the aforementioned mechanism by assessing the ratio between plasma immunoreactive EPO (iEPO) concentration and erythropoietic activity in young hypertransfused rats for different body growth rates. Red blood cell (RBC)-59Fe uptake was about 75% in 21-day-old rats; it rapidly decreased with time when the animals were placed on a protein-free diet, approaching a level of about 1% by the 10th day of protein starvation. Over the same period plasma iEPO decreased from 55 mU/ml to 7 mU/ml. Body growth rate was 0. Following this "protein depletion period" the rats received diets containing different amounts of casein ("protein repletion period") added isocalorically to the protein-free diet to elicit a rise in body growth rate. Statistically significant relationships (p less than 0.001) were found between dietary casein concentration and body growth rate (r = 0.991), dietary casein concentration and RBC-59Fe uptake (r = 0.991), dietary casein concentration and plasma iEPO level (r = 0.992), body growth rate and RBC-59Fe (r = 0.986), and body growth rate and plasma iEPO level (r = 0.994) in hypertransfused polycythemic rats during the protein repletion period. These findings suggest that the correlation between erythropoietic activity and growth rate in the growing rat is the result of an erythropoietin-dependent operating mechanism, which appears to be independent of the ratio tissue oxygen supply/tissue oxygen demand.