The influence of anesthetics on glycerol and K + translocation across the membrane of red blood cells

Abstract

A wide variety of chemically unrelated anesthetics protects red blood cells against osmotic hemolysis. The protective effects of most anesthetics are mutally additive, suggesting common rather than separate mechanisms of action. Other properties shared by these anesthetics are their inhibition of facilitated diffusion of glycerol into human erythrocytes and their stimulation of passive transport of this solute in bovine red blood cells. With respect to their influence on passive K + translocation. anesthetics can be divided into two groups. Neutral and anionic anesthetics cause in isotonic NaCl solutions a large K + loss and in hypotonic NaCl solutions a K + leakage which decreases rapidly with increasing cell volume. Cationic anesthetics have the opposite effect: no K + loss occurs at the optimal protective concentration, whereas at higher concentrations a K + leakage occurs which increases with increasing cell volume. The possible significance of these differences in action is discussed.