[5] The cytoplasmic domains of the EpoR contain a number of phosphotyrosines that are phosphorylated by Jak2 and serve as docking sites for a variety of intracellular pathway activators and Stats (such as Stat5).

In addition to activating Ras/AKT and ERK/MAP kinase, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/AKT pathway and STAT transcription factors, phosphotyrosines also serve as docking sites for phosphatases that negatively affect EpoR signaling in order to prevent overactivation that may lead to such disorders as erythrocytosis.

[14] Additionally, EpoR has been implicated in suppressing expression of death receptors Fas, Trail and TNFa that negatively affect erythropoiesis.

[21] Subsequent differentiation stages (proerythroblast to orthochromatic erythroblast) involve a decrease in cell size and eventual expulsion of the nucleus, and are likely dependent upon EpoR signaling only for their survival.

In addition, some evidence on macrocytosis in hypoxic stress (when Epo can increase 1000-fold) suggests that mitosis is actually skipped in later erythroid stages, when EpoR expression is low/absent, in order to provide emergency reserve of red blood cells as soon as possible.

Together, these data suggest that EpoR in erythroid differentiation may function primarily as a survival factor, while its effect on the cell cycle (for example, rate of division and corresponding changes in the levels of cyclins and Cdk inhibitors) in vivo awaits further work.

[25] An argument against such lack of requirement is that in response to Epo or hypoxic stress, the number of early erythroid stages, the BFU-e and CFU-e, increases dramatically.

EpoR-H form of EpoR truncation contains the first, and, what can be argued, the most important tyrosine 343 that serves as a docking site for the Stat5 molecule, but lacks the rest of the cytoplasmic tail.

The EpoR-HM receptor also lacks the majority of the cytoplasmic domain, and contains the tyrosine 343 that was mutated to phenylalanine, making it unsuitable for efficient Stat5 docking and activation.

Erythropoietin receptor has been shown to interact with: This article incorporates text from the United States National Library of Medicine, which is in the public domain.