Erythropoietin and Neonatal Anemia

Premature infants weighing less than 1300 g receive multiple red-cell transfusions, primarily because of blood loss from repeated blood sampling to monitor respiratory disease and because of the anemia of prematurity -- a condition associated with low plasma erythropoietin levels. Premaure infants with anemia do produce erythropoietin, but have lower levels than older persons with this condition. Inadequate erythropoietin production, and not unresponsive red-cell progenitors, appears to be a major cause of neonatal anemia. It is unclear why plasma erythropoietin levels are low in newborn infants, but one reason is that during the first weeks of life the liver is . . .