Cations Content And Membrane Properties Of Human Sickle Blood Incubated With Hydroxyurea, Tellurite And Thiocyanate

Abstract

The effect of hydroxyurea, sodium thiocyanate and potassium tellurite on cations content and membrane properties of sickle erythrocyte was investigated in this study. Human sickle blood was incubated with the drugs in vitro at their optimum sickling inhibitory concentration. Mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC), cations (Na+, K+ and Ca2+) contents and viscosity were measured. Tellurite and thiocyanate significantly increased (P0.05) MCV, reduced MCHC and blood viscosity and also significantly inhibited (P0.05) calcium accumulation by sickle red blood cell. In addition, the two drugs increased red blood cell sodium gain and inhibited potassium loss significantly. Incubation of the drugs with sickle erythrocyte ghost membrane indicated that tellurite and thiocyanate significantly inhibited (P0.05) Na+-K+-ATPase (EC 3.6.3.9) and Ca2+-Mg2+-ATPase (EC 3.6.3.8) activities. Blood incubated with hydroxyurea also significantly inhibited (P0.05) calcium ion accumulation but had no effect on all other measured parameters. This result suggests that thiocyanate and tellurite have positive modification effect on sickle erythrocyte membrane and cation transport thereby causing rehydration and improvement in red blood cell deformability. Keywords: Cations content, Erythrocyte Membrane, Hydroxyurea, Sodium thiocyanate, Potassium tellurite Egyptian Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Vol. 26 (1) 2008 pp. 117-125