Effect of recombinant human erythropoietin on the switchover from fetal to adult hemoglobin synthesis in preterm infants.

To determine whether recombinant erythropoietin (r-HuEpo) administered to very low birth weight infants could increase hemoglobin F synthesis, or delay its developmentally programmed decline, we determined serially the synthesis of hemoglobins A and F in 15 preterm infants receiving either a placebo or r-HuEpo. There was no difference between the two groups in the proportion of hemoglobin F being synthesized in relation to postconceptional age.