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Faster oxygen uptake kinetics at the onset of submaximal cycling exercise following 4 weeks recombinant human erythropoietin (r-HuEPO) treatment

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Abstract

We tested the hypothesis that prolonged administration of moderate doses of recombinant human erythropoietin (r-HuEPO) accelerates the initial rate of rise in pulmonary O2 uptake (O2) in response to submaximal exercise and increases the maximal rate of O2 uptake (O2,max). Sixteen endurance-trained athletes were divided into two groups: r-HuEPO- (n=9) or placebo-treated (n=7). r-HuEPO or placebo (saline) injections were given s.c. 3 times a week for 4 weeks. Exercise testing, before and after the 4 weeks, comprised incremental maximal tests and several transitions from rest to 10-min cycling exercise at 65%O2,max.O2 was measured breath-by-breath during all tests. In the r-HuEPO group, resting haemoglobin concentration (+9.6%) and haematocrit (+8.3%), as well asO2,max (+7.0%) and power output (+7.2%) increased significantly (P<0.05) after the 4 weeks, whereas no change was observed in the control group. The time constant of the primaryO2 response was significantly faster (+18%) after the 4 weeks r-HuEPO treatment than before (mean±SD; 29.3±4.5 vs. 35.7±7.4 s, respectively, P<0.05) but was unaffected in the placebo group (34.5±7.3 vs. 33.4±7.9 s). Collectively, our findings suggest that r-HuEPO contributes both to an acceleration of the dynamic response ofO2 to submaximal exercise and to an increase in maximal exercise capacity.

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Acknowledgements

We thank D. Bouix, D. Simar, S. Villard, J.F. Casties and H. Ben Saad for their excellent technical assistance. The authors wish to express their sincere gratitude to all the subjects who participated in the present study. We also wish to acknowledge the contribution of professor Michel Audran from the “Laboratoire de Biophysique, Montpellier, France”, Doctors Denis Mottet and Daniel Le Gallais, and staff from the “Laboratoire de Physiologie des Interactions” (Hopital Arnaud de Villeneuve, Montpellier, France).

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Correspondence to Stéphane Perrey.

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Connes, P., Perrey, S., Varray, A. et al. Faster oxygen uptake kinetics at the onset of submaximal cycling exercise following 4 weeks recombinant human erythropoietin (r-HuEPO) treatment. Pflugers Arch - Eur J Physiol 447, 231–238 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00424-003-1174-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00424-003-1174-0

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