PubMed Health⌕ Search

PubMed · 14044042

A RAPID MICRO METHOD FOR RECORDING RED CELL OSMOTIC FRAGILITY BY CONTINUOUS DECREASE OF SALT CONCENTRATION.

Abstract

A single volume of 0.075 ml. of a 1 in 10 dilution of whole blood in isotonic NaCl solution is introduced into a container cell, two walls of which are made of a dialysing membrane. The container cell is introduced into a test tube of distilled water, placed in an instrument which is essentially a colorimeter with a recorder, between the source of light and the photoelectric cell. Dialysis through the membrane results in a continuous decrease in the salt concentration of the medium surrounding the erythrocytes. The measurement of the degree of haemolysis is based on the increasing transparency of the erythrocyte suspension while haemolysis takes place. Recording this increasing light transmission as a function of time, i.e., as a function of decreasing salt concentration, yields the osmotic fragility curve. The automatically recorded curve is obtained in less than 10 minutes.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

D DANON. 1963. A RAPID MICRO METHOD FOR RECORDING RED CELL OSMOTIC FRAGILITY BY CONTINUOUS DECREASE OF SALT CONCENTRATION.. https://doi.org/10.1136/jcp.16.4.377

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

Routine transfusion of Rh(D)-positive RBCs to Rh(D)-negative patients designated as do not resuscitate conserves Rh(D)-negative red blood cell inventory.

BACKGROUND: A minority of blood donors are Rh(D)-negative, and Rh(D)-negative red blood cell (RBC) products are often overutilized. As such, Rh(D)-negative RBCs may be difficult to maintain in blood bank inventory. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: We changed our blood bank laboratory policy to approve non-alloimmunized Rh(D)-negative patients to receive Rh(D)-positive RBCs for routine transfusion under defined criteria. Those criteria included Rh(D)-negative males (all ages) and females (aged >50 years) who were designated as do not resuscitate (DNR), either with or without intubation, in the electronic medical record. RESULTS: From August 15, 2024 through August 15, 2025, a total of 204 Rh(D)-negative patients met the above criteria and were approved to receive routine Rh(D)-positive RBC transfusions. Within that group, 23 patients received Rh(D)-positive RBCs. The remaining patients either did not require transfusion or were issued Rh(D)-negative RBC units. Since implementing this practice, a total of 68 Rh(D)-negative units were conserved during this time frame. Notably, 28 of the 68 units (41%) were type O, Rh(D)-negative. DISCUSSION: Rh(D)-positive RBCs can be routinely given to non-alloimmunized Rh(D)-negative patients who are not at risk for developing hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn (HDFN). By creating clear guidelines for the routine administration of Rh(D)-positive RBCs to patients who are not at risk for HDFN, the inventory of Rh(D)-negative RBC units can be directed to those patients who would most benefit from this limited resource.

Erythrocytes↗

Network-based analysis of metabolic regulation in the human red blood cell.

Reconstruction of cell-scale metabolic networks is now possible. A description of allowable metabolic network functions can be obtained using extreme pathways, which are the convex basis vectors of the solution space containing all steady state flux distributions. However, only a portion of these allowable network functions are physiologically possible due to kinetic and regulatory constraints. Methods are now needed that enable us to take a defined metabolic network and deduce candidate regulatory structures that control the selection of these physiologically relevant states. One such approach is the singular value decomposition (SVD) of extreme pathway matrices (P), which allows for the characterization of steady state solution spaces. Eigenpathways, which are the left singular vectors from the SVD of P, can be described and categorized by their biochemical function. SVD of P for the human red blood cell showed that the first five eigenpathways, out of a total of 23, effectively characterize all the relevant physiological states of red blood cell metabolism calculated with a detailed kinetic model. Thus, with five degrees of freedom the magnitude and nature of the regulatory needs are defined. Additionally, the dominant features of these first five eigenpathways described key metabolic splits that are indeed regulated in the human red blood cell. The extreme pathway matrix is derived directly from network topology and only knowledge of Vmax values is needed to reach these conclusions. Thus, we have implemented a network-based analysis of regulation that complements the study of individual regulatory events. This topological approach may provide candidate regulatory structures for metabolic networks with known stoichiometry but poorly characterized regulation.

Erythrocytes↗

Quantitative evolutionary design of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase expression in human erythrocytes.

Why do the activities of some enzymes greatly exceed the flux capacity of the embedding pathways? This is a puzzling open problem in quantitative evolutionary design. In this work we investigate reasons for high expression of a thoroughly characterized enzyme: glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) in human erythrocytes. G6PD catalyses the first step of the pathway that supplies NADPH for antioxidant defense mechanisms. Normal G6PD activity far exceeds the capacity of human erythrocytes for a steady NADPH supply, which is limited upstream of G6PD. However, the distribution of erythrocyte G6PD activity in human populations reveals a selective pressure for maintaining high activity. To clarify the nature of this selective pressure, we studied how G6PD activity and other parameters in a model of the NADPH redox cycle affect metabolic performance. Our analysis indicates that normal G6PD activity is sufficient but not superfluous to avoid NADPH depletion and ensure timely adaptation of the NADPH supply during pulses of oxidative load such as those that occur during adherence of erythrocytes to phagocytes. These results suggest that large excess capacities found in some biochemical and physiological systems, rather than representing large safety factors, may reflect a close match of system design to unscrutinized performance requirements. Understanding quantitative evolutionary design thus calls for careful consideration of the various performance specifications that biological components/processes must meet in order for the organism to be fit. The biochemical systems framework used in this paper is generally applicable for such a detailed examination of the quantitative evolutionary design of gene expression levels in other systems.

Erythrocytes↗