Red Cell Membranes

Fusion of Human Red Blood Cell Membranes

The ability of the parainfluenza group of viruses to induce cell fusion with the production of polykaryocytes and heterokaryons of animal cells has been well documented (1, 2, 3, 4) . Much of the interest in cell fusion in recent years has centered on cell hybrids with nuclei of different species occupying the same cell . Such hybrid cells have proved useful for studies of nuclear-cytoplasmic r...

Kinetics of chloride transport across fish red blood cell membranes

The continuous flow tube method was used to investigate the kinetics of chloride transport, and its potential oxygenation-dependency, in red blood cells (RBCs) from four teleost fish species and man. A significant interspecific variation in Cl- transport kinetics was found. At 15 °C, the rate constant k for unidirectional 36Cl- efflux was significantly lower in RBCs from eel and carp than i...

Freeze-cleaving of red cell membranes in paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria.

Mechanism of spontaneous inside-out vesiculation of red cell membranes

In certain conditions, human red cell membranes spontaneously form inside out vesicles within 20 min after hypotonic lysis. Study of the geometry of this process now reveals that, contrary to earlier views of vesiculation by endocytosis or by the mechanical shearing of cytoskeleton-depleted membrane, lysis generates a persistent membrane edge which spontaneously curls, cuts, and splices the mem...

Microrheology of red blood cell membranes using dynamic scattering microscopy.

We employ a novel optical technique, dynamic scattering microscopy (DSM), to extract the frequency dependence of the viscoelastic modulus associated with the red blood cell membrane. This approach applies the principle of dynamic light scattering to micro beads attached to the red blood cell membrane in thermal fluctuation. This allows for highthroughput characterization of a large number of ce...