Effects of recombinant human erythropoietin on porphyrin metabolism in uremic patients on hemodialysis.

Recombinant human erythropoietin (r-HuEPO) is being successfully used for the treatment of uremic anemia. Several abnormalities of heme biosynthetic pathway have been described in patients with end-stage renal failure. In this condition, the activity of erythrocyte porphobilinogen deaminase has been found to be slightly increased. If this enzyme were to be the key enzyme in erythroid heme regulation, its activity would be increased to an even greater degree during the correction of uremic anemia. To assess this hypothesis, this study followed the variations of this and other parameters of porphyrin metabolism over 12 months of erythropoietin therapy in eight patients with nephrogenic anemia who underwent hemodialysis. By the first month of therapy, an increase of the previously depressed erythrocyte activity of aminolevulinate dehydratase was already evident, in coincidence with a nonsignificant increase of the reticulocyte count. The activity of this enzyme reached its maximal level by Month 3, and did not change up to Month 10. The porphobilinogen deaminase hyperactivity normalized at Month 4. By Month 12, in coincidence with the reduction of erythropoietin doses, the maximal levels of erythrocyte protoporphyrin, and the decrease in aminolevulinate dehydratase activity, the porphobilinogen deaminase values started to increase once again. In conclusion, the administration of r-HuEPO to hemodialyzed patients induced transient normalization of the previously observed porphyrin metabolism abnormalities. However, erythrocyte porphobilinogen deaminase activity did not rise concomitantly with the increase in hematocrit or hemoglobin values, but it did diminish during treatment. Therefore, porphobilinogen deaminase did not behave as a controlling enzyme in heme synthesis during the r-HuEPO-induced correction of uremic anemia.