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Biochemical characterization of size‐separated human red blood cells
Author(s) -
Vaysse Jenny,
Gattegno Liliane,
Pilardeau Paul
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
european journal of haematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1600-0609
pISSN - 0902-4441
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0609.1992.tb00570.x
Subject(s) - sialic acid , mean corpuscular volume , lysis , centrifugation , tonicity , red blood cell , chemistry , cell , biochemistry , biology , hemoglobin
Abstract: Human red blood cells (RBC) are heterogeneous with respect to their size; the physiological significance of this heterogeneity has not yet been fully elucidated. To further investigate this problem, some characteristics of human RBC fractionated according to their mean corpuscular volume (MCV) by counterflow centrifugation were determined. Larger RBC are more prone to hypotonic lysis. The membrane protein content per cell increases with the MCV, but no obvious difference in the distribution of the major proteins can be demonstrated. The lipid content per cell also rises with the RBC size, while the percentages of the main lipid components do not significantly vary. However, the variations of sialic acid content per RBC according to MCV are more important than those of protein or lipid; thus, the sialic acid‐to‐protein ratio gradually increases with the MCV. This indicates that, in spite of the lack of major changes in the membrane composition, some qualitative differences exist between large and small cells.