Direct Cytoskeleton Forces Cause Membrane Softening in Red Blood Cells

Direct Cytoskeleton Forces Cause Membrane Softening in Red Blood Cells.

Erythrocytes are flexible cells specialized in the systemic transport of oxygen in vertebrates. This physiological function is connected to their outstanding ability to deform in passing through narrow capillaries. In recent years, there has been an influx of experimental evidence of enhanced cell-shape fluctuations related to metabolically driven activity of the erythroid membrane skeleton. Ho...

Cytoskeleton confinement of red blood cell membrane fluctuations

We analyze both the static and dynamic fluctuation spectrum of the red-blood cell in a unified manner, using a simple model of the composite membrane. In this model, the two-dimensional spectrin network that forms the cytoskeleton is treated as a rigid shell which is located at some constant average separation from the lipid bilayer. The cytoskeleton thereby confines both the static and dynamic...

Hyperglycemia can cause membrane lipid peroxidation and osmotic fragility in human red blood cells.

The present study has examined the effect of elevated glucose levels on membrane lipid peroxidation and osmotic fragility in human red blood cells (RBC). Defibrinated whole blood or RBC were incubated with varying concentrations of glucose at 37 degrees C for 24 h. RBC incubated with elevated levels of glucose showed a significantly increased membrane lipid peroxidation when compared with contr...

The red cell membrane and its cytoskeleton.

Deformation of red blood cells using acoustic radiation forces.

Acoustic radiation forces have been used to manipulate cells and bacteria in a number of recent microfluidic applications. The net force on a cell has been subject to careful investigation over a number of decades. We demonstrate that the radiation forces also act to deformcells. An ultrasonic standing wave field is created in a 0.1 mm glass capillary at a frequency of 7.9 MHz. Using osmoticall...