The effect of chronic, low-level lead poisoning on the erythropoietin response to hypoxia.

Anemia is a characteristic of chronic lead-poisoning (1). Although lead might cause anemia solely via its known interference with hemoglobin synthesis (1), lead might also affect the kidney's secretion of erythropoietin (ESF) since lead accumulates in the kidney (2) and is known to impair other renal functions (3). Moreover, with regard to the kidney's endocrine function, we have recently demonstrated that small, acute, iv doses of lead (0.1 mg/kg) raise plasma renin activity (PRA); in contrast, chronic lead poisoning in humans on low salt diets is associated with relatively low PRA (4, 5). There have been no studies of ESF in chronic lead poisoning, but in rats, extremely large, acute, iv doses of lead (40 mg/kg) either reduce (6) or have no effect on (7) the plasma ESF response to hypoxia on the subsequent day. We therefore hypothesized that chronic, low-level, lead-poisoning would reduce the ESF response normally seen in hypoxia; we have tested this hypothesis in rats.Methods. Experimental protocol. St...