Figure 6.

The long-term effects of Epo on RBC oxidative markers, ageing, and susceptibility to hemolysis, and phagocytosis. Thalassemic RBC were diluted to 4 × 10⁶/ml with their plasma and incubated with or without Epo (2 U/ml) for 3 days. The cells were then harvested and assayed for ROS (a), GSH (b), calcein (c), external phosphatidylserine (PS) (d), hemolysis (e) and phagocytosis (f) as detailed in Section 2. The results in (a), (b) and (c) are presented the mean fluorescence index (MFI), in (d) as the percentage of PS positive RBC, and in (e) and (f) as the percentage of hemolysed and phagocytosed RBC, respectively, compared to the RBC input. The data are the average ± SD of 4 experiments performed with blood samples derived from different patients.