Abstract
The effect of transmembrane potential on the deformability of red blood cells (RBC) suspended in isotonic glucose-saline and galactose-saline solutions was determined using the micropipette aspiration technique. In this method, a negative pressure was applied to the RBC membrane via a micropipette and the resulting deformation was analyzed using a Kelvin model to yield a membrane elastic modulus E. When glucose concentration was increased from 0 to 0.3 M/dm 3 in the extracellular media, the membrane elastic modulus increased seven-fold ( p < 0.0001) with most increase occurring in the 0–0.1 M/dm 3 range. Whereas, galactose had no significant effect on the membrane elasticity up to a concentration of 0.28 M/dm 3. However, in pure galactose (isotonic) solution (0.308 M/dm 3), the membrane elastic modulus decreased by a factor of 3 ( p < 0.001). Increase in the RBC elastic modulus in the presence of glucose may be due to binding of glucose to the membrane and intracellular proteins, and decrease in the presence of pure galactose may be due to the transmembrane potential generated by chloride ions.
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