Clinical and laboratory observations

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

Bard, Harry MD
Widness, John A. MD

From the Departments of Pediatrics, University of Montreal, Research Center, Hopital Ste. Justine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics, University of Iowa, Iowa City.
Supported in part by the Medical Research Council of Canada (MA 11552) (Dr. Bard), R. W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute; and National Institutes of Health grants PO1 HL46925 and MO1 RR00059 (Dr. Widness).
Submitted for publication Jan. 12, 1995; accepted April 7, 1995.
Reprint requests: Harry Bard, MD, Research Center, Hopital Ste. Justine, 3175 Chemin Cote Ste. Catherine, Montreal, Quebec H3T 1C5, Canada.

Journal of Pediatrics 127(3):p 478-480, September 1995.

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. (J Pediatr 1995;127:478-80)