The knockout of urea transporter-B improves the hemorheological properties of erythrocyte

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Geng, Xiaoqiang^a | Lei, Tianluo^a | Zhou, Hong^a | Yao, Weijuan^{b; *} | Xin, Weihong^{c; *} | Yang, Baoxue^{a; *}

Affiliations: [a] State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, Key Laboratory of Molecular Cardiovascular Sciences, Ministry of Education, and Department of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China | [b] Hemorheology Center, Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China | [c] Department of Otolaryngology and Head Neck, China-Japan Union Hospital, Changchun, China

Correspondence: [*] Correspondence to: Baoxue Yang, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University Health Science Center, 38 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100191, China. Tel./Fax: +86 10 82805622; E-mail: baoxue@bjmu.edu.cn.

Correspondence: [*] Correspondence to: Weihong Xin, Department of Otolaryngology and Head Neck, China-Japan Union Hospital, Changchun, China. E-mail: wh15@163.com.

Correspondence: [*] Correspondence to: Weijuan Yao, Ph.D., Hemorheology Center, Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University Health Science Center, 38 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100191, China. Tel./Fax: +86 10 82802419; E-mail: weijuanyao@bjmu.edu.cn.

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: Urea transporter-B (UT-B), highly expressed in erythrocyte, confers specific permeability to urea, urea analogues and water. The purpose of this study was to determine the hemorheological properties of UT-B null erythrocyte using a series of biophysical techniques. METHODS AND RESULTS: The blood was taken from UT-B knockout and wild-type mice and the hemorheological parameters were measured. The UT-B inhibitor, PU-14, was used to treat the erythrocyte of wild-type mice in vitro and the deformability of the treated erythrocyte was analyzed. The results showed that UT-B knockout improves the hemorheological properties of erythrocyte, including increased erythrocyte deformation index, small deformation index, orientation index, low osmotic fragility and high electrophoretic rate. The UT-B inhibitor PU-14 had the similar effect as UT-B knockout on the deformation indices. The whole blood viscosity in UT-B knockout mice showed reduction trend as compared to wild-type mice. CONCLUSIONS: The data indicate that UT-B is involved in the regulation of hemorheology, which suggests that UT-B may be a potential therapeutic target for improving the hemorheology in some metabolic and hereditary diseases.

Keywords: Urea transporter, UT-B, erythrocyte, hemorheology, knockout

DOI: 10.3233/CH-16174

Journal: Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation, vol. 65, no. 3, pp. 249-257, 2017