Cross reactivity between human erythropoietin antibody and horse erythropoietin

Erythropoietin (EPO) is the primary hormone of erythropoiesis. Administration of recombinant human erythropoietin (rhuEPO) to improve racing performance in the horse represents a new form of blood doping, which has been associated with increased mortality. While immunoassay kits have become plentiful, very few commercial hormone assays are made specifically for equine research. There is a strong degree of sequence homology reported for EPO among species, which has allowed antibodies designed for human EPO research to be used to determine EPO concentration in other species. The objective of the present study was to use Western blot analysis to determine whether the antibody to rhuEPO, provided in a commercial radioimmunoassay (RIA) kit, recognizes horse EPO. Western blot analysis of purified rhuEPO and horse plasma was conducted, using the polyclonal goat-antihuman EPO antibody supplied in the Incstar EPO Trac RIA as the primary antibody. Immunoblot analysis revealed a major band at approximately 52 kDa for both rhuEPO and the horse plasma. Our results demonstrate that a human EPO antibody recognizes equine EPO. These findings show that the Incstar EPO Trac RIA hormone assay system can be used to measure equine EPO.