1 St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Tufts Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
A model for the kinetics of erythropoiesis, which has previously received support from experimental studies in animals was tested in human beings. This model predicts that in the face of severe anemia and high levels of endogenous erythropoietin production, the cell size will be determined by the availability of hemoglobin precursors, e.g., iron. This was tested in iron-deficient rodents and human beings by varying the dose of iron given to severly anemic subjects. As would be predicted by the model, when high doses of iron were given, macrocytes were produced; low doses produced an increase in hemoglobin but with the continued production of microcytes; intermediate doses resulted in the production of normocytes.
Submitted on February 24, 1965