RNA-seq of human whole-blood samples before and after the administration of recombinant human erythropoietin

As part of cross-platform comparisons of microarray and RNA-seq, the current experiment using the Illumina NextSeq 500 and MGI DNBSEQ-G400RS aimed to quantify gene-level expression in subjects administered recombinant human erythropoietin over a 10-week protocol for the identification of gene signatures of blood doping. These results were compared to results obtained from other gene expression quantification platforms using the same experimental cohort, including the Illumina HumanHT-12v4 Expression BeadChips (archived in ArrayExpress; E-MTAB-2874) and Affymetrix Human Transcriptome Array 2.0 (archived in ArrayExpress; E-MTAB-11080). Whole blood samples of 10 endurance-trained Caucasian males at sea level from Glasgow, Scotland were subject to analysis in the current study. The 10 subjects were part of 18 subjects previously analysed on the Illumina HumanHT-12v4 Expression BeadChip (E-MTAB-2874). Briefly, they underwent 4-week 50 IU/kg body mass of recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) injections every 2 days. Daily oral iron supplementation (100 mg of elemental iron, ferrous sulphate tablets, Almus, Barnstable, UK) was given during the 4 weeks of rHuEPO administration. Here, whole blood samples collected at baseline (Base1 and Base2), during the rHuEPO administration (2 days and 2 weeks following the 1st injection; EPO3 and EPO4) and for 2 weeks after the rHuEPO administration (Post7) were analysed on the Illumina NextSeq 500 and MGI DNBSEQ-G400RS.