BIOL 2P98 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Erythrocyte Fragility, Splenectomy, Red Blood Cell
17 Feb 2016
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Seminar three: cellular membrane transport of solutes and water. A 20-year-old woman suffers from anemia and occasional jaundice. Microscopic examination of the patient"s blood showed a large number of microspherocytes (red blood cells [rbcs] that are round and somewhat smaller than erythrocytes). The osmotic fragility (measured by putting rbcs in hypotonic solution) was much greater than that of rbcs from healthy individuals. When the patient"s erythrocytes were incubated in a buffer solution at 37 c under sterile conditions, the fraction of the rbcs that were hemolyzed was much larger than the hemolyzed fraction from a healthy individual. This autohemolysis could be greatly diminished by including glucose and adenosine triphosphate (atp) in the rbc incubation solution. Rbcs from fresh blood had a normal content of na+ and k+. The permeabilities of the patient"s erythrocyte membranes to na+ and k+ were found to be about three time"s normal.
