Causes of Anemia for Patients with Chronic Renal Failure

Anemia is a common complication of Chronic Renal Failure. It is caused by several causes including the decreased hemopoietin, the reduced life expectancy of red blood cells, uremic toxins and so on.

Hemopoietin is a kind of hormone, about 80~90% of which is secreted by kidneys. In normal case, it acts on marrow bone cells and make them differentiate into red cells. However, for the patients with Chronic Renal Failure, the renal parenchyma is damaged extensively. The residual nephrone and extrarenal tissues can only produce a small amount of hemopoietin so it can not meet the need of hematopoiesis. After the synthetic hemopoietin is used in clinical practices, renal anemia has improved obviously. It proves that hemopoietin insufficiency is the main cause of renal anemia.

Besides the hematopoiesis insufficiency, reduced life expectancy of red blood cells is also a reason for renal anemia. The normal red blood cells can love for about 120 days, but for the patients with Chronic Renal Failure, the life expectancy of their red blood cells is only 30~70 days.

Moreover, the uremic toxins in body restrain the red blood cells, which is also an important reason for renal anemia. The toxins can restrain the hematopoietic function of bone marrow and disorder the activity of hemopoietin. In addition, they also restrain the formation of haemoglobin.

Obstruction of the utilization of iron is also a nonnegligible cause of renal anemia for the patients with Chronic Renal Anemia. The ferritin level in the patients usually increases. This proves that the ability of storing and transferring iron decreases, which is closely related to the hemopoietin insufficiency.


From the above causes of renal anemia, it can be seen that anemia is caused by the declined renal function. As the kidneys are damaged, they lose their normal secretion, excretion and filtration abilities. Therefore, in order to correct renal anemia for the patients with Chronic Renal Failure, repairing the damaged renal structure and improving renal function is the first step. If you want to know more about prevention measures, diets or other aspects of renal anemia, please consult us on line or email to kidney-treatment@hotmail.com.