A recombinant therapeutic agent which is chemically identical to or similar to the endogenous cytokine human erythropoietin (EPO). Produced primarily by cells of the peritubular capillary endothelium of the kidney in response to hypoxia, circulating EPO binds to EPO receptors on the surface of committed erythroid progenitors in the bone marrow resulting in their replication and maturation into functional erythrocytes.
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