Open AccessSpectrin and Other Membrane-Skeletal Components in Human Red Blood Cells of Different Age
Author(s) -
Annarita Ciana,
Cesare Achilli,
Giampaolo Minetti
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
cellular physiology and biochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.486
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1421-9778
pISSN - 1015-8987
DOI - 10.1159/000478769
Subject(s) - spectrin , vesicle , red blood cell , epb41 , membrane protein , microbiology and biotechnology , in vivo , in vitro , biology , biochemistry , cytoplasm , lipid bilayer , chemistry , cell , membrane , cytoskeleton , genetics
Old human red blood cells (RBCs) have a reduced surface area with respect to young RBCs. If this decrease occurred through the release of vesicles similar to the spectrin-free vesicles that are shed in vitro under different experimental conditions or during storage, there would be no decrease of membrane-skeleton, but only of lipid bilayer surface area, during RBC ageing in vivo. However, we observed a decrease in spectrin and other membrane-skeletal proteins in old RBCs. Because RBCs contain components of the ubiquitin-proteasome system and other hydrolytic systems for protein degradation, we asked whether increased membrane-skeleton fragments could be detected in older RBCs.