Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
2
pubmed:dateCreated
1993-2-23
pubmed:abstractText
Red blood cells (RBCs) in sickle cell anemia, transformed into a sickled shape by prolonged deoxygenation, or normal RBCs deformed by a prolonged micropipette aspiration become permanently stabilized in their abnormal shape. This semisolid plastic behavior is thought to involve an irreversible reorganization of the membrane skeleton, but the exact nature of this skeletal rearrangement is not known. In this study, we first asked whether the irreversible deformation is associated with a permanent stretching of the skeletal network, and then whether it is due to a rearrangement of skeletal components involving a disruption of pre-existing protein associations and the subsequent reassociation of new protein contacts. Having found no ultrastructural evidence of stretching of the skeletal lattice in membranes derived from permanently deformed RBCs, we addressed the possibility of reorganization of the proteins of the membrane skeleton. We examined the temperature dependence of irreversible cell deformation to see if it correlated with the known temperature dependence of spectrin tetramers to dimer dissociation and reassociation. Testing the shape irreversibility of both deoxygenated reversibly sickled cells and Nucleopore-aspirated normal cells, we found that both types of cells became permanently deformed when the prolonged incubation of applied force or deoxygenation was performed at 37 degrees C, the temperature at which spectrin tetramers were free to dissociate and reassociate. In contrast, both types of cells were able to regain their original discocytic shape if the prolonged incubation was performed at the lower temperature: at less than 13 degrees C instead of 37 degrees C. Furthermore, normal RBCs were incubated with inosine and pyruvate to elevate intracellular 2,3-diphosphoglycerate, the polyanion shown to destabilize spectrin-actin-protein 4.1 association. This did not result in a promotion of irreversible deformation of these cells. We conclude that the irreversible cell deformation observed at physiologic temperature is associated with a skeletal rearrangement through dissociation of spectrin tetramers to dimers and a subsequent reassociation of dimers to tetramers in the new (deformed) configuration. These findings may explain a permanent stabilization of irreversibly sickled cells in their abnormal shape in vivo.
pubmed:grant
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
AIM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Jan
pubmed:issn
0006-4971
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:day
15
pubmed:volume
81
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
522-8
pubmed:dateRevised
2007-11-14
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
1993
pubmed:articleTitle
Dependence of the permanent deformation of red blood cell membranes on spectrin dimer-tetramer equilibrium: implication for permanent membrane deformation of irreversibly sickled cells.
pubmed:affiliation
Department of Biomedical Research and Medicine, St Elizabeth's Hospital, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S., Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't