Effect of chronic ethanol administration on production of and response to erythropoietin in the mouse.

Male adult mice were allowed to drink only a solution of 32% ethyl alcohol for 3 months. Hematocrit and hemoglobin concentration were lower in ethanol-treated than in control mice at the end of the experimental period. Red cell volume was not significantly different between both groups. Plasma volume was higher in experimental than in control mice. Therefore, the anemia found in ethanol-treated mice can be regarded as a dilution anemia. When ethanol-treated and control mice, both made polycythemic by hypertransfusion to suppress their endogenous erythropoietin formation, were injected with doses of erythropoietin in the range of 0.2 to 3.2 IRP units, the derived dose-response curves were markedly different because of a reduced response to the hormone by the treated mice. This finding suggests that the number of "erythropoietin-responsive cells" may be reduced as the result of ethanol, or that their response to the hormone may be delayed or inhibited. Plasma erythropoietin concentration in alcohol- treated mice, as determined in the posthypoxic polycythemic mouse bioassay, was higher than normal in both normoxic and hypoxic conditions, probably as the result of the impaired responsiveness to the hormone mentioned above.