Cell-membrane and rheological mechanisms: dynamic osmotic hemolysis of human erythrocytes and repair of ghosts, as studied by resistive pulse spectroscopy

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Yee, James P. | Mel, Howard C.

Affiliations: Division of Medical Physics and Donner Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720

Note: [] Accepted by: Editor G.V.F. Seaman

Abstract: Normal human erythrocytes undergoing abrupt osmotic hemolysis display a single, transient, localized circular rupture over 15 to 20% of their total surface area. An immediate and striking drop in apparent volume for such cells, as measured by electronic “sizing” using resistive pulse spectroscopy (RPS), is ascribed primarily to a greatly increased, flow-induced, cell-membrane deformation and associated expulsion of ghost contents rather than to an intrinsic property of hemolysis per se. The time and flow-rate dependence of the RPS spectra measure the rates of ghost formation and repair of the hemolytic lesion in the membrane. Restored ghosts rehemolyze at a critical volume and lesion size similar to those of the original lysing cells. Membrane rather than cytoplasmic (internal viscosity) properties dominate deformability measured from RPS spectral shape.

DOI: 10.3233/BIR-1978-153-419

Journal: Biorheology, vol. 15, no. 3-4, pp. 321-339, 1978