Abstract
Recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO), has been widely used for the treatment of anemia in dialysis patients. This study was carried out to assess whether rHuEPO was eliminated during dialysis by either membrane adsorption or filtration. An in vitro recirculation system was employed with the use of 8 types of dialyzers. The reduction rates of rHuEPO on the use of EVAL, PMMA and PAN (Filtral-16) for 2 hours recirculation were 20-25%, while those on other membrane dialyzers showed less than 12%. Sieving coefficient of rHuEPO at 30 and 60min during recirculation was 0.015 and 0.032 respectively on polysulfone (APS-15), 0.037 and 0.033 on cellulose triacetate, and was 0.123 and 0.104 on EVAL. On the other hand rHuEPO could not be detected in the filtrates passed through other membrane dialyzers. There results showed that rHuEPO was eliminated by membrane adsorption and/or filtration with use of certain membrane dialyzers. This fact should be taken into account on the use of rHuEPO during hemodialysis.
