Animal & computer investigations into the murine erythroid response to chronic hypoxia.

During chronic hypoxia, the number of splenic erythroid progenitor cells in mice, particularly CFU-E, increased dramatically but transiently. Since all three classes of erythroid progenitors in the femoral bone marrow were suppressed, a large part of this increase might be attributed to migration of CFU-E and/or their progenitors from the medullary cavity. The changes in CFU-E were preceded 48-72 hours earlier by an increase in serum erythropoietin (Ep) titers which, in turn, had been preceded by a rapid and marked "shift-to-the-right" in the hemoglobin oxygen dissociation curve. During hypoxia, the mice lost a considerable fraction of their body weight. Computer simulations, using a mathematical model of erythropoietic regulation, suggest that this weight loss, either indirectly by reducing the need for red cells in a smaller-than-control animal or by directly altering the sensitivity of the Ep-producing mechanism, is the major cause of the falling Ep titers despite continuation of the hypoxic stress. Because of high endogenous 59Fe incorporation levels, it was not possible to confirm the thesis that animals with an expanded Erythropoietin Responsive Cell (ERC) compartment would be more sensitive to exogenous erythropoietin than are mice with a normal or reduced ERC population.