Identification of RNA Markers in Red Blood Cells for Doping Control in Autologous Blood Transfusion

We conducted an animal experiment and used total RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) to identify novel RNA markers to detect autologous blood transfusion (ABT) doping within red blood cells (RBCs) as a pilot study before human trials. The total RNA-Seq and bioinformatics were performed using rat RBCs that were stored 10- and 20-day periods with citrate–phosphate–dextrose solution with adenine (CPDA) at 4°C In the results, we identified three significant genes whose expression levels were drastically decreased according to the storage period. Our novel insights may allow future studies to develop a test method for ABT doping. RNAs of RBCs purified form the whole bloods were analyzed using total RNA-Seq, at each storage period.