Alkalosis and erythropoietin

[Akam ahz]

Hello,

My physiology book says that alkalosis stimulates secretion of erythropoietin. But I don't understand how? And google searches are complex, could someone explain that mechanism for me simply?

Thanks!

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[aldol16]

Are you familiar with the Bohr effect? If not, read up on that before reading this explanation.

During respiratory alkalosis, your body is basically breathing out CO2 too fast, which diminishes the pCO2 in the blood and pushing the bicarb buffer system to make more CO2. This chews up protons, leaving your body with an acid-base imbalance - specifically, with too few protons, which makes your blood too alkaline. According to the Bohr effect, as pCO2 increases, hemoglobin's affinity for O2 decreases. Thus, the reduced pCO2 observed with alkalosis causes hemoglobin's affinity for O2 to increase. In other words, hemoglobin is holding onto the O2 too strongly and not letting it off at the peripheral tissues. Your peripheral tissues aren't getting enough O2 and thus stimulate your body to make more RBCs because they think that you're oxygen-starved.