Glutaraldehyde effect on the osmotic fragility and rate of haemolysis of human erythrocytes: a kinetic study
Constantinescu, A.; Mărgineanu, D.G.
Archives Internationales de Physiologie et de Biochimie 90(4): 277-284
1982
ISSN/ISBN: 0003-9799 PMID: 6188431 Document Number: 191659
The effect of glutaraldehyde treatment on the osmotic fragility and rate of hemolysis of human erythrocytes was studied in the temperature domain 22.degree.-42.degree. C at different aldehyde concentrations from 0.010-0.040% (wt/vol). The osmotic fragility linearly decreases at increasing temperatures for all glutaraldehyde concentrations with approximately the same slope as for the untreated erythrocytes. Rather similar effects are produced on the rate of hemolysis. It was not possible to define unique activation energies. The maximal hemolysis becomes smaller after the treatment with increasing concentrations of glutaraldehyde but more erythrocytes are no longer able to tolerate normally nonhemolysing osmotic stretching, this suggesting an artififical aging of erythrocytes. The formation of a membrane protein skeleton as a result of cross-liking is inferred, while the changes in the cytoskeletal spectrin network seem to be less important.