Abstract
Summary
Injections of hemoglobin or hemin stimulated erythropoiesis in rats and gerbils but were without effect in normal or polycythemic mice. Attempts to demonstrate increased erythropoietin levels in plasma of hemoglobin-treated rats were unsuccessful. Injection of antierythropoietin serum abolished in gerbils the hemoglobin-induced increase in erythropoiesis. No evidence was found that hemoglobin increased the erythropoietic response to erythropoietin. It is concluded that hemoglobin exerts its erythropoiesis-stimulating effect by inducing small increases in erythropoietin.
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