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The anaemia of chronic renal failure: a potentially treatable catabolic phenomenon?
It is proposed that the anaemia of chronic renal failure and the apparent lack of erythropoietin response is a result of increased proteolytic and lysosomal enzyme action on both the red cell and erythropoietin itself. Removal of the sialic acid from the red cell membrane is known to cause sequestration and a shortened cell survival. Similarly removal of sialic acid from the carbohydrate coat of erythropoietin both increases clearance by the liver and renders it susceptible to cleavage into inactive fragments by proteolytic attack. If the hypothesis is correct therapeutic intervention using enzyme inhibitors may offer hope for the amelioration of the anaemia.
It is proposed that the anaemia of chronic renal failure and the apparent lack of erythropoietin response is a result of increased proteolytic and lysosomal enzyme action on both the red cell and erythropoietin itself. Removal of the sialic acid from the red cell membrane is known to cause sequestration and a shortened cell survival. Similarly removal of sialic acid from the carbohydrate coat of erythropoietin both increases clearance by the liver and renders it susceptible to cleavage into inactive fragments by proteolytic attack. If the hypothesis is correct therapeutic intervention using enzyme inhibitors may offer hope for the amelioration of the anaemia.