Morphofunctional properties of red blood cells in humans during seven-day “Dry” immersion

Abstract

Healthy male volunteers were subjected to seven-day “dry” immersion. After that, morphological and biochemical features of erythrocytes, erythropoiesis intensity, including the indices of iron metabolism and erythropoietin, lipid and phospholipid spectrum of the plasma membrane of erythrocytes, and the efficiency of binding and release of oxygen by hemoglobin were studied. The studies were performed before immersion, at the last seventh day of immersion, and on the 7th and 15th days of the recovery period. We found that seven-day “dry” immersion tended to change morphological composition of red blood, erythropoiesis intensity, and metabolic indices in erythrocytes. Seven-day simulated microgravity resulted in significant changes in the indices of oxygen-transporting function of erythrocytes, probably, due to changes at the membrane level and, particularly, in phospholipid fractions. These changes have no clinical importance, because all of them returned to the baseline after the 15-day recovery period. Substantial variability of data is related to an individual response of the body to stress induced by experimental conditions.