EPO and cardiac hypertrophy: Other physiologic perturbations that were observed in rats consuming the HFe diets included: 1) cardiac hypertrophy, consistent with severe copper deficiency [31]; 2) anemia in the presence of adequate (or elevated) iron stores and normal serum nonheme iron levels; 3) robust induction of Epo in iron-replete animals; and 4) decreased tissue copper levels and reduced serum Cp activity.