Trial reportEuropean journal of applied physiology2016
RhEPO improves time to exhaustion by non-hematopoietic factors in humans.
Trial report in European journal of applied physiology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- The relationship between hemoglobin andPloS one · 2023Pooled it
- Effect of erythropoietin on athletic performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Sensitivity and specificity of detection methods for erythropoietin doping in cyclists.Drug testing and analysis · 2019Trial
- Erythropoiesis-Targeted Doping in Sports: From Improved Oxygen Transport to Cardiovascular Risk.Pathophysiology : the official journal of the International Society for Pathophysiology · 2026Review
- Metabolomic responses are more sensitive in muscle than serum following 28 days of arduous exercise with erythropoietin administration.Experimental physiology · 2026Article
- Recombinant Human Erythropoietin Effects on Well-Trained Athletes' Endurance Performance: A Systematic Review.Sports (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Exogenous erythropoietin increases hematological status, fat oxidation, and aerobic performance in males following prolonged strenuous training.Physiological reports · 2024Article
- The erythropoietin receptor expressed in skeletal muscle is essential for mitochondrial biogenesis and physiological exercise.Pflugers Archiv : European journal of physiology · 2021Article
- An Abductive Inference Approach to Assess the Performance-Enhancing Effects of Drugs Included on the World Anti-Doping Agency Prohibited List.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2021Review
- Review of WADA Prohibited Substances: Limited Evidence for Performance-Enhancing Effects.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2019Review
- Optimal hematocrit in an artificial microvascular network.Transfusion · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeErythropoietin (EPO) controls red cell volume (RCV) and plasma volume (PV). Therefore, injecting recombinant human EPO (rhEPO) increases RCV and most likely reduces PV. RhEPO-induced endurance improvements are explained by an increase in blood oxygen (O2) transport capacity, which increases maximum O2 uptake ([Formula: see text]O2max). However, it is debatable whether increased RCV or [Formula: see text]O2max are the main reasons for the prolongation of the time to exhaustion (t lim) at submaximal intensity. We hypothesized that high rhEPO doses in particular contracts PV such that the improvement in t lim is not as strong as at lower doses while [Formula: see text]O2max increases in a dose-dependent manner.
methodsWe investigated the effects of different doses of rhEPO given during 4 weeks [placebo (P), low (L), medium (M), and high (H) dosage] on RCV, PV, [Formula: see text]O2max and t lim in 40 subjects.
resultsWhile RCV increased in a dose-dependent manner, PV decreased independent of the rhEPO dose. The improvements in t lim (P +21.4 ± 23.8%; L +16.7 ± 29.8%; M +44.8 ± 62.7%; H +69.7 ± 73.4%) depended on the applied doses (R (2) = 0.89) and clearly exceeded the dose-independent [Formula: see text]O2max increases (P -1.7 ± 3.2%; L +2.6 ± 6.8%; M +5.7 ± 5.1 %; H +5.6 ± 4.3 %) after 4 weeks of rhEPO administration. Furthermore, the absolute t lim was not related (R (2) ≈ 0) to RCV or to [Formula: see text]O2max.
conclusionsWe conclude that a contraction in PV does not negatively affect t lim and that rhEPO improves t lim by additional, non-hematopoietic factors.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.