Hypoxic threshold of the erythropoietic response in the female rat

Abstract

The hypoxic threshold of the erythro­poietic response in the rat was investigated.

The effects on the blood volumen of a long term permanency at different al­titudes above sea level and the effects of acute exposition to the same degrees of hypoxia upon the plasma iron T 1/2 were studied.

The results in both series of experiments are coincident and prove that the falls in the O2 tension which take place at altitudes in between 2000 and 2350 meters above sea level are able to iniciate the erythropoietic response as can be seen tlirough the shortening of the plas­ma iron T 1/2 and the increases of the blood volumen which take place at those altitudes.